Untitled

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 30 September 1933, Page 12

It is well-known that a mixture of petrol and benzol possesses certain advantageous qualities which are absent when petrol alone is used as a car fuel, the principal merit of the combination being its pronounced “antiknock” characteristic. For that reason the petrol-benzol “shandy,” as it is called among contest drivers, has for long been favoured by motoring competitors using high compression engines. A mixture of alcohol and petrol also possesses similar characteristics, but the stumbling block has been the necessity of using an intermediary mixing agent, such as a proportion of benzol or ether; inasmuch as the alco-1 hoi procurable in commercial quantities is generally below absolute stand ard to the extent of about 5 per cent., ►representing the amount of water in the i product. The product of a South African company, in Natal, is interesting. It is proposed, as the result of prolonged experiments, to operate a plant for the production of 100 per j cent, alcohol from molasses, with an [ estimated output of 2000 gallons a day. I It is claimed that by employing this product a simple petrol-alcohol mixture may be used for fuel, and that it will function satisfactorily under cylinder compression ratios as high as ten to one.