Ethyl, Methyl, Amyl

To an immense majority of U. S. citizens, alcohol denotes either that which is shudderingly referred to as Demon Rum or affectionately described as John Barleycorn. Yet, despite the tremendous amount of advertising which alcohol as a beverage has immemorially received, its use for industrial (i. e., non-beverage) purposes has been and remains one of its vitally important functions. True, last week's formation of General Industrial Alcohol Corp., merger of General Industrial Alcohol Co., Inc., National Industrial Alcohol Co., Inc., and two smaller industrial alcohol companies, was a matter of no great moment to the Anti-Saloon League or to the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. Indeed, the U. S. public in general probably took scant interest in the facts that the new company will manufacture annually some 5,000,000 gallons of denatured alcohol, that it will be eighth largest U. S. industrial alcohol concern. Yet industrial alcohol, with more than 400 separate uses, from the ethylene of the obstetrician to the embalming fluid of the undertaker, is one of the necessities of modern existence. Into each life some industrial alcohol must fall. Ethyl, Methyl, Amyl. There are three general kinds of alcohol--ethyl, methyl and amyl. Ethyl alcohol is grain alcohol, and may be used socially (as in cocktails) as well as industrially. Methyl alcohol is wood alcohol, made by distillation of the gases which escape from burning wood. Unlike ethyl, methyl is immediately poisonous, almost instantaneously fatal. Amyl alcohol is a by-product of ethyl, is an acrid, evil-smelling substance commonly known as fusel oil, and is a comparatively unimportant member of the alcohol family. Industrial alcohol is ethyl alcohol denatured by the addition of methyl alcohol to make it unfit for beverage purposes. There are other denaturants, such as sulphuric ether, turpentine, benzol and animal oil, but methyl is generally employed. Thus when unskillful persons unsuccessfully attempt to take the denaturing out of denatured alcohol, the familiar phenomena of wood alcohol poisoning usually result. Ethyl alcohol can theoretically be made from any sugar, cellulose or starch--Germany, for instance, has a potato-alcohol industry--but in the U. S. alcohol is usually derived from sugar-cane molasses, cheap and easily fermentable. Uses. During 1928 (fiscal year ending June 30) the U. S. produced 92,418,025 wine gallons of industrial alcohol. Alcohol is used in making artificial silks, hair tonics, tooth pastes, liniments & lotions, ether, perfume, vinegar, tobacco, photographic supplies. Makers of soaps, shellacs, varnishes, polishes and lacquers are alcohol-users, so are makers of fungicides, insecticides, deodorants and disinfectants. When alcohol in eau de Cologne is applied to an aching head, the alcohol evaporates rapidly, uses up the heat of the body and cools the fevered brow. When alcohol in a liniment is rubbed into the skin it dilates the blood vessels and relieves the twinges of lumbago, neuritis, "muscular rheumatism." Anhydrous alcohol (alcohol with all but 0.1% of its water removed) makes gasoline more potent, but at present gasoline is cheaper than alcohol and industrial alcohol is not much used for motor fuel in this country. In Germany, however (where cheap gasoline is not so readily available), many an automobile guzzles a mixture of about half alcohol, half gasoline and a little benzine. A most important external use of alcohol by the U. S. motorist, however, is found in alcohol anti-freeze mixtures. U. S. radiators absorb anti-freeze alcohol at the rate of 40 million gallons per year.