USES OF ALGOHOL

Hokitika Guardian, 6 February 1929, Page 7

USES OF ALGOHOL

Alcohol from the chemist’s point o view is one of the most important substances made. It owes its origii to the fact that the little, single-cel! yeast plants fight their enemies by turning sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, 'i lie veast cell itseu canno stand more than fifteen per cent al eo,ii,l. Inn its rivals taco away Ion; before this concentration is reached at least, they become so stupefied Uni I lie.v do not' count. Perhaps it would be terrifying to the rabid prohibitionist to know that a liquor containing one million times, one million times, oim million times Kj.O'iO molecules o‘‘ alcohol in one teaspoon fill would stiL be entirely legal, even under the American one-half per cent law, so tha after all the human body can stand quite a number of alcohol molecules. Alcohol is industrially of such im me rise importance for two reasons First, that it is the most important solvent next to water and dissolves i great many materials that water leaves untouched; and, second, tha! it is the starting point for a porfed army of substances that are indispen sable to the average human being not always directly, it is true. In making lacquers from nitrocellulose lacquers that lmvc become so Lreinen dously important to the automobile and furniture trades, as well as t< the trade in novelties and the like alcohol is an essential because it can be converted into ethyl acetate, and ethyl acetate and ethyl butyrate are very good solvents for nitrocellulose. Ether, the most widely used of nl’ anaesthetics, that has been responsible for doing away with an infinity ol pain and making it possible for the surgeon to save many lives, is madr directly from alcohol. In fact, if yo>could pick up two molecules of ai cohol, hold them close together and pull off two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen between the two vie would have left a molecule of other. The chemist uses phosphoric acid o sulphuric acid to pull the water out. Ethylene, the gas that is now used tc hasten the ripening of lemons, bananas and the like, is also made lrorn alcohol, but in this case you pull one molecule of water out of one, molecule of alcohol instead of two. Altogether it is to the very great advantage of any people to have industrial alcohol available in unlimited quantifies and very cheap.