THE USES OF ALCOHOL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume IX, Issue 678, 5 March 1903, Page 22

THE USES OF ALCOHOL.

Alcobol, even temperance reformer® will admit, has its uses. There is no med to enter on the interminable discusudon ae to whether it is a food or not, because, apart altogether from its consumption by man, it may be put to a great variety of industrial and artistic wes. Last month an international exhibition of appliances in which alcohol is emjfloyed was held in Peru, the only one of t3xo leading commercial nations not represented being Britain. Britain, however, is , sufficiently interested in the general subto recognise that scientific and public titutions ought to be encouraged to ex.periment with alcohol with a view to extending • its usefulness, and pure spirit is MTw obtainable by these institutions duty free. But the people who deal with alcohol as ah article of commerce are still not satisfied; They are urging the Home Government to remove the duty entirely from the methylated spirit. Mr Sigmund Stein, ft Liverpool authority, calculates that dpty-free alcohol could be sold in Great Britain at tenpence a gallon. This would give a cheap illuminant without smell, and free from the risks of explosion. In Germany, he says, there is scarcely a house that does not use the spirit for heating or cooking. For power purposes, Mr Stein holds, the spirit has much to recommend it. In works, such as laundries and (fairies, where cleanliness and purity of atmosphere are highly desirable, - alcohol might be employed with great advantage over gas, owing to its freedom from unhealthy fumes. Moreover, it would be much cheaper. Comparing it with the price of Liverpool gas, for example, the cost of alcohol would not be much more than a third. Again, for motors it is preferable to petrol, because it does not ©xplode, and because its caloric value is . greater. Mr Stein belongs 1 to a firm of sugar refiners who deal largely in beet, and the removal of the restrictions on the manufacture of the spirit would naturally benefit the sugar manufacturers. The commercial value of alcohol seems to have teen' more fully recognised in America dl.d in Germany than in Great Britain, aSid it is reported that quite recently France hast decided to remove the duty on methylated spirit, so that Mr Stein and his friends have plenty of evidence to support their agitation.