THE PASSING OF PETROL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2139, 12 June 1920, Page 4

THE PASSING OF PETROL.

A SCIENTIST’S DISCOVERY. "SUN-POWER” THE SOLUTION. The high prices ruling for petrol in Britain have directed attention to possible substitutes. Professor Harold B. Dixon, F.R.S., who is a member of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Alcohol Motor Fuel, and is in charge of the Manchester University of all research and experiments in connection with the discovery of suitable alternative fuel to petrol, claims-some very real progress as a result of his investigations. Some motor-power authorities are prophesying the approaching independence of the British Empire in the matter of imported motor fuel, and the numbering of the days of the 7s 5d tin of petrol. Incidentally, it may interest non-petrol users to know that at present the New Zealand price-is more Hum double the figure which lias aroused such indignation in Britain. Professor Dixon is still conducting inquiries into the different values of ordinary alcohol, ether, benzole, and various mixtures of all three. In. his opinion, according to the Manchester motoring .correspondent of the Daily Mail, we “can rid ourselves permanently of the- petrol incubus and more than, fill the enormous demands of motor transport all over the Empire by taking sunpower as it comes, and not by draining away the limited store of old sun-products still available.”

“My researches so far,” said Professor Dixon to the correspondent, “have convinced mo that wc can get alt the motor fuel we need from a single tree or other form of vegetation. I say ‘tree’ because 1 believe Ihe niahua tree, which grows freely in India, yields a large proportion of alcohol from its (lowers when (hey are treated. But a good yield is also obtained from molasses, of which there is a huge supply in the West Indies and other accessible parts of the Empire. “Pure alcohol, ns yon know, needs a higher compression in the ordinary motor engine than we use to-day. It is also difficult to start up from cold. But mixed with cither benzole, or, what I regard as infinitely more practical, other, it becomes as tractable a fuel as any wo have now. Ether is produced, of course, from the alcohol itself. “I am still experimenting with Compressions to find out exactly at what point different strengths of the alcohol mixtures are most efficient all round.” -

“How long would it he before such a supply of fuel could begin;” Professor Dixon was asked. “That does not worry me at all,” he replied. “From the moment the Government sanction its manufacture and when the raw material and plant is available, it is only a question of ordinary chemical processes to extract the stuff. A few weeks. It does not take long to make.” It is expected that the committee’s report will be presented nextmonth.