Extracts Alcohol

1919

English Engineer Obtains Liquid Fuel From Coke.

CLEVELAND, England. — It is announced here that a local engineer has succeeded in extracting commercial alcohol from coke. It is claimed that if the process, which requires the use of gas, is applied to all the coal carbonized in Great Britain, an estimated yield of 60,000,000 gallons of motor spirits will be obtained annually, revolutionizing the supply and cost of liquid fuel.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Beware of Empty Gasoline Container

Beware of Empty Gasoline Container

1920

Is More Dangerous Than Full One, Say Scientists

Empty gasoline tanks are always more dangerous than full ones, says the Popular Science Monthly. In most cases some residue remains in the tank or can. The remaining gasoline vaporizes and is explosive. As the tank is being filled this mixture is forced out and will explode if ignited by a spark held near the opening.

To guard against accidents all openings should be blown out with compressed air. If this method cannot be used the cover should be removed and the vapors fanned out. Unless a current of air is circulating gasoline should never be used for cleaning engines or other machinery; and if the air is passing lights should be kept at a safe distance on the intake side of the engine.

Nature's Secrets — Possibilities of Solar Power

1920

Man gets to feeling pretty smart at times, but nature still has a great deal to teach him if she only would, says the Ohio State Journal. A scientist in the employ of the National Electric Lamp Association at its great plant in Cleveland devoted the entire season last year to studying the lightning bug in the effort to find out how that interesting creature makes light without heat. He failed to discover the secret, as had many another scientist before him.

The potential power which falls on the decks of a battleship in the sunshine of an August day, if it could be harnessed and utilized, would drive the ship vastly faster and farther in a day's journey than its great engines can drive it. The problem of harnessing presents, thus far, the insurmountable difficulty. When that is solved, as probably it will be someday, people will heat their houses with stored sunshine and gas shortages and coal strikes will be matters of perfect indifference.

Nature is jealous of her secrets, but she has grudgingly given up some and she will give up more as time goes on for she cannot resist forever the blandishments of the endless race of wooers whose hearts and intellects are concentrated upon finding out what else she knows.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, p. 6.

Man Carelessly Empties Motorcycle Gas on Train Floor, It Catches Fire

CARELESS WITH GASOLINE.

Motorcycle Man Pours It on the Floor and Sets Fire to a Combination Car at Salem.

Sioux Falls, S. D., Aug. 7.-Partial destruction of the combination baggage and express car on the Omaha railroad at Salem last night as the result of a peculiar accident is reported by arrivals from that place. A passenger placed in the baggage car a motorcycle and was instructed by the conductor that he must remove the gasoline from it. Instead of pouring the gasoline out upon the ground it was poured upon the floor of the baggage car and the interior of the car in an instant was a mass of flames, the gasoline having ignited from lamps in the car. The motorcycle was completely destroyed and the interior of the car badly damaged and several trunks and other contents consumed.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 19, 1909, page 8.

Comment: So what was this moron's problem? Obviously, if we don't want you having gasoline on board the train, we also don't want you pouring it on the floor, stupid. You have any idea what happens when gas and fire mix?

Amateur "Fixes" Gas Tank

Hot Iron-Then Neighbors Called the Police Reserves and the Fire Department.

New York.-"Now then, doggie, we'll have this thing fixed in a jiffy," said William S. Grey to his dog, as he placed a hot soldering iron on a partly filled gasoline tank in the kitchen of his home.

The tank on his auto had been leaking and he decided to fix it.

He had scarcely finished the sentence when the top of the tank went up to the ceiling.

Tenants on the three upper floors rushed to the street, police reserves, firemen and detectives were called and Inspector Callahan of the bureau of combustibles, who was in the neighborhood, ran to the house.

The police entered the apartment to take charge of a corpse, but found only a broken window, a dismembered tank and a perfectly healthy man.

--The Bessemer Herald, Bessemer, Michigan, April 9, 1921, page 2.