Motor Fuel.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 3, 28 September 1907, Page 4

Motor Fuel.

v : —: — PETROL FAMINE FEARED. Tho cult of tho motor-car, which has grown so phenomenally in the last seven 'years, is (says a London newspaper) threatened with a severe check unless a substitute for petrol, can be' found without delay. Motor-cars were at first an object of suspicion and misgiving until radical 'improvements were made. The well-to-do were gradually, educated up to them, with tho result that ,thero aro now in use more than a hundred motor-cars for every 0110 a few years back. This applies pqually to England, America, and the Continent, and it has all been so sudden that the world's available supply of petrol has become heavily mortgaßed - The motor-omnibuses which have been placed on the streets of London, simultaneously -with the general adoption of petrol for commercial vehicles in New"! York and other great American cities, have been the_ latest faotors in bringing about tho crisis. IS THERE A SUBSTITUTE ? The price of petrol is now Is. to Is. 4d. a gallon—practically double the prico of" five years ago, when its conversion from a by-product to a lifogiving spirit for motor-cars was comparatively recont. Tho demand. for petrol is* so enormous / that ..unless a substitute is. found tho price threatens to rise so high as to be within the roach of the, very wealthy only. This means that the more the motor industry prospers and continues its upward bounds, the more does it appear to be doomed to compulsory suicide if petrol is not soon replaced." Alcohol can be manufactured at a cost of from 3d. a gallon upwards, but the main difficulty is owing.to the, strictness of the Excise This, with the expense of denaturing, and of supervision, brings tho_ tqUy), cost up to about 2s. a gallon, of course, prohibitive. Alcohol motor spirit can bo manufacture cheaply from wood, fruit skins, sawr, dust, peat, potatoes, and any vegetable growth. The supply is thus in-' exhaustible, and if tho Exciso authorities would materially lighten the burden of duty on alcohol for such purposes, the motor-car industry would be relieved of what threatens to bo its most serious setback. ,