ALCOHOL MOTOR FUEL.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16988, 10 November 1920, Page 11

ALCOHOL MOTOR FUEL.

RESEARCH IN GREAT BRITAIN. Vigorous efforts are hemp; made In British men ol' science and engineers Id discover all the possibilities of alcohol as a motor fuel. The increasing scare it y of petrol, and the prosjxjcts that the supplies from all visible resources will gradually sink until they disappear in twenty-five years or si/, Vn-l a special urgency to the problem ol 'finding a cheap and plentiful substitute. Realising how serious the situation was, the Royal Automobile Clu-b and the Commercial Motor Users' -Association. both of Great Britain, united in paying the cost of an ambitious programme ol" re* search, at the University of Manchester, inta the value of alcohol as fuel. At. the request of the Alcohol Motor Fuel Committee, appointed by the Bri- ! tish Government to survey the whole question, the programme was put in the s hands of Professor Dixon, who recently . gave the results of his investigations in ' .1 lecture delivered zn London. A scieui tific studv was mado hy Professor Dixon . and his assistants of the behaviour of 1 alcohol and of mixtures of alcohol and - benzole . after ignition. The main obi jject was to find out the conditions which > would give the highest 'efficiency with j existing internal combustion engines when run on alcohol or alcohol mix- \ tyres'." Information of the greatest value s to designers has been collected. British r investigations "in this* field have exteud- » ed to the value of potatoes beet, maize, 1 and other sources of power alcohol. It J is quite possible that many tropical and ; sub-tropical plants which have hitherto • been regarded as a nuisance or as of little '"value will prove to have a high ■ yield of the substances out- of which, by " fermentation, alcohol may be produced fn large quantities at a low price. The • research ' now being • conducted may • therefore be the means of transforming t the economic prospects of morn than ■ one country.