Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes and Processes. Various

ready for the press, Congress passed the bill which has since become a law, whereby the prohibitive tax on industrial or denatured alcohol is removed. So important is this legislative measure that the Editor has deemed it wise to insert an article on the sources of alcohol and the manufacture of alcohol from farm products. Because the first portion of the book was in type when this step was decided upon, the Editor was compelled to relegate to a later page a monograph which should properly have appeared here. The reader will find the matter on alcohol referred to under the heading {45} “Spirit”; likewise methods of denaturing and a list of denaturants.

      ALCOHOL, DILUTION OF: See Tables.

      Alcohol, Tests For Absolute.

      —The committee for the compilation of the German Arzneibuch established the following tests for the determination of absolute alcohol:

      Absolute alcohol is a clear, colorless, volatile, readily imflammable liquid which burns with a faintly luminous flame. Absolute alcohol has a peculiar odor, a burning taste, and does not affect litmus paper. Boiling point, 78.50. Specific gravity, 0.795 to 0.797. One hundred parts contain 99.7 to 99.4 parts, by volume, or 99.6 to 99.0 parts, by weight, of alcohol.

      Absolute alcohol should have no foreign smell and should mix with water without cloudiness.

      After the admixture of 5 drops of silver-nitrate solution, 10 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol should not become turbid or colored even on heating.

      A mixture of 10 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol and 0.2 cubic centimeter of potash lye evaporated down to 1 cubic centimeter should not exhibit an odor of fusel oil after supersaturation with dilute sulphuric acid.

      Five cubic centimeters of sulphuric acid, carefully covered, in a test tube, with a stratum of 5 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol, should not form a rose-colored zone at the surface of contact, even on standing for some time.

      The red color of a mixture of 10 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol and 1 cubic centimeter of potassium-permanganate solution should not pass into yellow before 20 minutes.

      Absolute alcohol should not be dyed by hydrogen sulphide water or by aqueous ammonia.

      Five cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol should not leave behind a weighable residue after evaporation on water bath.

      Absolute Alcohol.

      —If gelatine be suspended in ordinary alcohol it will absorb the water, but as it is insoluble in alcohol, that substance will remain behind, and thus nearly absolute alcohol will be obtained without distillation.

      Perfumed Denaturized Alcohol.—

East India lemon oil	1,250 parts
Mirbane oil	1,000 parts
Cassia oil	50 parts
Clove oil	75 parts
Lemon oil	100 parts
Amyl acetate	500 parts
Spirit (95 per cent)	7,000 parts

      Dissolve the oils in the spirit and add the amyl acetate. The mixture serves for destroying the bad odor of denaturized spirit in distilling. Use 50 parts of the perfume per 1,000 parts of spirit.

      Solid Alcohol.

      —I.—Heat 1,000 parts of denaturized alcohol (90 per cent) in a flask of double the capacity on the water bath to about 140° F., and then mix with 28 to 30 parts of well-dried, rasped Venetian soap and 2 parts of gum lac. After repeated shaking, complete dissolution will take place. The solution is put, while still warm, into metallic vessels, closing them up at once and allowing the mixture to cool therein. The admixture of gum lac effects a better preservation and also prevents the evaporation of the alcohol. On lighting the solid spirit the soap remains behind.

      II.—Smaragdine is a trade name for solidified alcohol. It consists of alcohol and gun cotton, colored with malachite green. It appears in the market in the form of small cubes.

      Alcohol In Fermented Beers.

      —Experience has shown that 1/4 pound of sugar to 1 gallon of water yields about 2 per cent of proof spirit, or about 1 per cent of absolute alcohol. Beyond this amount it is not safe to go, if the legal limit is to be observed, yet a ginger beer brewed with 1/4 pound per gallon of sugar would be a very wishy-washy compound, and there is little doubt that a much larger quantity is generally used. The more sugar that is used—up to 1 1/2 or 1 1/4 pounds per gallon—the better the drink will be and the more customers will relish it; but it will be as “strong” as lager and contain perhaps 5 per cent of alcohol, which will make it anything but a “temperance” drink. Any maker who is using as much as even 1/2 pound of sugar per gallon is bound to get more spirit than the law allows. Meanwhile it is scarcely accurate to term ginger beers, etc., non-alcoholic.

      Alcohol Deodorizer.—

Alcohol	160 ounces
Powdered quicklime	300 grains
Powdered alum	150 grains
Spirit of nitrous ether	1 1/4 drachms

      Mix the lime and alum intimately by trituration; add the alcohol and shake well; then add the spirit of nitrous ether; set aside for 7 days and filter through animal charcoal.

      Denaturized Alcohol.

      —There are two general classes or degrees of denaturizing, viz., the “complete” and the “incomplete,” according to the purpose for {46} which the alcohol so denaturized is to be ultimately used.

      I.—Complete denaturization by the German system is accomplished by the addition to every 100 liters (equal to 26 ¹/₂ gallons) of spirits:

      (a) Two and one-half liters of the “standard” denaturizer, made of 4 parts of wood alcohol, 1 part of pyridine (a nitrogenous base obtained by distilling bone oil or coal tar), with the addition of 50 grams to each liter of oil of lavender or rosemary.

      (b) One and one-fourth liters of the above “standard” and 2 liters of benzol with every 100 liters of alcohol.

      II.—Incomplete denaturization—i.e., sufficient to prevent alcohol from being drunk, but not to disqualify it from use for various special purposes, for which the wholly denaturized spirits would be unavailable—is accomplished by several methods as follows, the quantity and nature of each substance given being the prescribed dose for each 100 liters (26 ¹/₂ gallons) of spirits:

      (c) Five liters of wood alcohol or ¹/₂ liter of pyridine.

      (d) Twenty liters of solution of shellac, containing 1 part gum to 2 parts alcohol of 90-per-cent purity. Alcohol for the manufacture of celluloid and pegamoid is denaturized.

      (e) By the addition of 1 kilogram of camphor or 2 liters oil of turpentine or ¹/₂ liter benzol to each 100 liters of spirits. Alcohol to be used in the manufacture of ethers, aldehyde, agaricin, white lead, bromo-silver gelatines, photographic papers and plates, electrode plates, collodion, salicylic acid and salts, aniline chemistry, and a great number of other purposes, is denaturized by the addition of—

      (f) Ten liters sulphuric ether, or 1 part of benzol, or ¹/₂ part oil of turpentine, or 0.025 part of animal oil.

      For the manufacture of varnishes and inks alcohol is denaturized by the addition of oil of turpentine or animal oil, and for the production of soda soaps by the addition of 1 kilogram of castor oil. Alcohol for the production of lanolin is prepared by adding 5 liters of benzine to each hectoliter of spirits.

      Ale.

      The ale of the modern brewer is manufactured in several varieties, which are determined