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> You may wish to look into either methyl or is it
> ethyl alcohol. John, which is it?
You rang, M'lord? And G'day; Methyl alcohol is also methanol and
is very poisonous. They put it in 'methylated spirits' in NZ and
England to stop people drinking it - but of course it doesn't; (hence
the term 'metho's') it merely sends them blind and mad.
Ethyl Alcohol is also ethanol. This is often made by soaking grain
(barley, wheat, corn etc) in water, allowing it to just sprout which
produces sugars and enzymes, dissolving out the sugars and fermenting
them with yeasts, then distilling off the ethanol which is of course
a waste product of the yeast growing and multiplying. Hence the term
'grain spirit'. Almost all countries in the world place a tax on
grain spirit beverages including vodka, which is pure ethanol fairly
heavily diluted with water. Generally a special license is required to
buy ethanol; industrial grade 90-96% or 'absolute' 98%, and only
laboratories and certain industries can obtain such a license; a
privilege which is jealously guarded. (ordinary folk like you, me,
and the bootleggers have to make their own cheap untaxed ethanol.) In
Australia the Colonial Sugar Refining Company make vast quantities of
the stuff, some in the form of rum. Ethanol is also make from
natural mineral oil by speciality petroleum product refiners. Don't
forget that ethanol is also poisonous (toxic) - hence 'drying out' is
called detoxification. Methanol is also made from petroleum products -
in vast amounts as it is used as a starting material for a large
number of chemicals. Like I said, it is exceedingly poisonous. It
can also be produced in certain fermentation reactions. 'Bath tub
gin'?
Then there are n.propyl, iso-propyl, (propanols) iso and n. and
tertiary butyl (butanols) alcohols; (And others) all of which are used
commercially in various but large amounts. Most of which are
poisonous in varying degrees and amounts.
There are a very large number of other alcohols, produced naturally
by certain plants, but we won't bother with those either.
So, what should one use in a spirit lamp? I suggest one of the
commercially available alcohols sold in paint stores and hardware
shops. Just don't breathe the vapours and don't drink the stuff. I
have used spirit lamps containing 'methylated spirit' most of my life
and have drunk alcohols since I was 20 (I prefer rum, with lemon or
cloves please, depending on the ambient temperature) So there you are,
more than you ever wanted to know about alcohols - you can blame Skip
Meister for all this. Cheers.
--
/\ John Burgess
/ /
/ / Johnb AT ts.co.nz
/ /__|\
(_______) It's spring in Mapua Nelson NZ And rains mostly
at night
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