Benutzer:Graskraft\forbidden fuel
Forbidden Fuel
... so heißt das Buch das William Kovarik 1982 geschrieben hat. Zu einer Zeit also, als Alkohol als Kraftstoff für Automobile nur als Kuriosität betrachtet wurde.
Hinweis auf das Interview mit Domestic fuel. Das ist eine Web-Site, die über "Roland\heimische Kraftstoffe" informiert, wie es früher in Deutschland genannt wurde.
Das Buch ist in Europa in kaum einer Bibliothek zu finden und nur noch für teurs Geld antiqurisch zu bekommen. Kovarik hat Auszüge daraus auf seiner Website veröffentlicht, was Grundlage dieses Textes ist.
Er hatte nach eigener Ausage nur wenig Informationen über Europa, so daß hier Ergänzungen notwendig sind.
Alkohol als Brennstoff vor der Entdeckung des Petroleums
Die Technikgeschichte der Energie ist voller Ungenauigkeiten und Mythen. Ein Mythos ist daß Edwin Drakes erste Ölquelle, die 1859 in Pennsylvania erbohrt wurde, gerade zur rechten Zeit gekommen sei um den versiegenden Strom von Waltran zu ersetzen. Tatsächlich waren im 19. Jahrhundert eine ganze Reihe von Brennstoffen für Beleuchtungszwecke in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und in Europa auf dem Markt.n Diese bildeten den Ausgangspunkt für die Suche nach flüssigen Energieträgern, die in Verbrennungsmotern verwendet werden könnten.
Lampenöl umfaßte alle Arten pflanzlicher Öle, wie Rizinus-, Raps- oder Erdnußöl, aber auch tierische Fette, wie vom Wal oder Talg von Rindern und Schweinen, gereinigtes Terpentine von Nadelbäumen, aber auch Alkohole. Darunter der Holzgeist, also Methanol, oder Kornbranntwein, also Ethanol. In den USA bestand der am weitesten verbreitete Brennstoff für Lampen aus einer Mischung von Alkohol und Terpentin im Verhältnis 1:1 und wurde "camphene" oder einfach "burning fluid" genannt.
Der Mythos vom Waltran erscheint an verschiedenen Stellen, neuerdings in der Geschichte der Ölindustrie, die das Kerosin als das "neue Licht, das die Nacht zurückgetrieben und den Arbeitstag verlängert hat" preist. Auch das Smithonian Institut verkündet: "Es war die Entdeckung des Petroleums im jahre 1859, die eine Revolution bei der künstlichen Beleuchtung bewirkt hat" und es heißt "Kerosin [...] war billig und relativ sauber. Die Lampenfabrikanten sprangen sofort an und schon 1870 konnte praktisch jeder die Beleuchtung daheim genießen".
- The"whale oil myth," appears in many places, most recently in the history of the oil industry, The Prize, which hailed kerosene as "the new light which pushed back the night and extended the working day." It was a "marvel to eyes that had strained to see by means of a lighted rag,"14 A recent Smithsonian exhibit provided a similar perspective: "It was the discovery of petroleum in 1859 that kindled the revolution in artificial lighting," the exhibit said. "Kerosene ...was cheap and relatively clean. Lamp companies had sprung up immediately and by the 1870s virtually everyone could enjoy indoor lighting." 15 This traditional error is found in many other accounts of the history of energy. According to a 1960 history, "petroleum arrived on the scene in answer to a world-wide quest for a new source of artificial light."16 In an Ethyl Corp. magazine of 1943, for example, we find the following:
- "During the first half of the 19th century, scientists eagerly sought to develop better lighting fuels ... At that time, rural America for the most part depended on whale oil and sperm oil lamps to light its homes, and upon beeswax and tallow candles. Supplies, however, were limited and were becoming insufficient to meet a constantly growing demand."17
These accounts seem to be inspired examples of rhetoric of the technological sublime. They are also fiction.
Tatsächlich traf das Kerosine auf einen gut organisierten Markt für flüssige Brennstoffe mit großtechnischer Produktion, Logistik und ausgereifter Technik für die Endkundne. Mit anderen Worten "Kerosin ersetzte nur andere Brennstoffe, es brachte nicht Licht in die vorher finstere Welt".
In den 3 bis 4 Jahrzehnten bevor das Petroleum in Pennsylvania entdeckt worden war, war hieß der führende Brennstoff "camphene" und war eine Mischung aus hochgradigem Alkohol mit 20 bis 50 % Terpentine, das die Flamme zum Leuchten brachte und einigen Tropfen Kampfer, die den Geruch des Terpentins überdecken sollte. Alkohol war ein wichtiges Standbein für die Brennereien, die zwischen einem Drittel bis 80% ihrer Produktion als Brennstoff absetzen. Das erste US-Patent für eine Spirituslampe war 1834 an S. Casey in Lebanon (Maine) erteilt worden, aber es ist klar, daß Alkohol auch schon vorher für diesen Zweck verwendet worden ist. Samuel Morey benutzte den Brennstoff 1826 im ersten prototyp eines Verbrennungsmotors.
- In the 30 or 40 years before petroleum was discovered , the leading fuel was "camphene" (sometimes simply called "burning fluid"). It was a blend of high-proof ethyl alcohol with 20 to 50 percent turpentine to color the flame and a few drops of camphor oil to mask the turpentine smell. Alcohol for camphene was an important mainstay for distilleries, and many sold between one third and 80 percent of their product on the fuel market.18 The first U.S. patent for alcohol as a lamp fuel was awarded in 1834 to S. Casey, of Lebanon, Maine but it is clear that alcohol was routinely used a fuel beforehand.19 Samuel Morey used the readily available alcohol in the first American prototype internal combustion engine at the surprisingly early date of 1826.20 We should note that Morey's work was lost in the enthusaism for the steam engine and a lack of funding. No other internal combustion engine would be developed until Nicholas Otto began his experiments 35 years later.
Ende der 1830er Jahre hatten Alkohol-Mischungen längst das immer kostspieliger werdende Walöl ersetzt
- By the late 1830s, alcohol blends had replaced increasingly expensive whale oil in most parts of the country. It "easily took the lead as the illuminant" because it was "a decided improvement on other oils then in use," (especially lard oils) according to a lamp manufacturer's "History of Light."21 By 1860, thousands of distilleries churned out at least 90 million gallons of alcohol per year for lighting.22 In the 1850s, camphene (at $.50 per gallon) was cheaper than whale oil ($1.30 to $2.50 per gallon) and lard oil (90 cents per gallon). It was about the same price as coal oil, which was the product first marketed as "kerosene"23 (literally "sun fuel").
- Kerosene from petroleum was a good fuel when it arrived in the 1860s: it was usually not too volatile, it burned brightly and it was fairly cheap. A gradual shift from camphene to kerosene might have occurred, but instead, a $2.08 per gallon tax on alcohol was imposed in stages between 1862 and 1864 as part of the Internal Revenue Act to pay for the Civil War. The tax was meant to apply to beverage alcohol, but without any specific exemption, it was also applied to fuel and industrial uses for alcohol. "The imposition of the internal-revenue tax on distilled spirits ... increased the cost of this 'burning fluid' beyond the possibility of using it in competition with kerosene..," said Rufus F. Herrick, an engineer with the Edison Electric Testing Laboratory who wrote one of the first books on the use of alcohol fuel.24
While a gradual shift from burning fluid (or spirit lamps) to kerosine did occur in Europe during the last half of the 19th century, the American alcohol tax meant that kerosene became the primary fuel virtually overnight, and the distilleries making lamp fuel lost their markets. The tax "had the effect of upsetting [the distilleries] and in some cases destroying them," said IRS commissioner David A. Wells in 1872. "The manufacture of burning fluid for lighting suddenly ceased; happily, it was replaced by petroleum, which was about to be discovered."25 Similarly, C.J. Zintheo, of the US Department of Agriculture, said that 90 million gallons of alcohol per year were used for lighting, cooking, and industry before the tax was imposed.26 Meanwhile, use of oil shot up from almost nothing in 1860 to over 200 million gallons in 1870.27 "The effect was disastrous to great industries, which, if [they were to be] saved from ruin, had to be rapidly revolutionized," according to Irish engineer Robert N. Tweedy.28
The distress in the alcohol industry may be reflected in the number of patents for various combinations of burning fluids. Between 1861 and 1867, the patent office issued 32 different patents for burning fluids, alcohol or camphene blends; only five had been awarded in the previous 33 years. After 1867, no patents for "burning fluids" are listed.29 The dramatic increase in numbers of patents, as alcohol became prohibitively expensive, may reflect desperate attempts to find new combinations of inflammable liquids to replace the product of the rapidly dying alcohol fuel industry .
Thus, the growth of the petroleum industry in the 1860s was greatly aided by the heavy federal tax on its primary competitor .The myth that petroleum was at first a dramatic deliverance from the darkness, and then the only important fuel for the horseless carriage, indicates the extent to which oil industry historians have been influenced by the rhetoric of the technological sublime. In fact, early automotive inventors resorted to both petroleum and alcohol spirit lamp fuels as readily available energy sources. == Futter für den Wagen ohne Pferd
- Fodder for the Horseless Carriage
Der Gedanke, die Dampfmaschine, bei der die Verbrennung außerhalb stattfindet und erst der heiße Dampf im Zylinder den Kolben bewegt, durch eine Maschinde, zu ersetzen, bei der die Verbrennung im Zylinder selbst stattfindet, bewegte die Phantasie der Menschen im 19. Jahrhundet. Aber die Idee kann bis zu Experimenten mit Schießpulver im späten 17. Jahrhundert zurückverfolgt werden. Der Historiker Lyle Cummins hat ein Dutzend Erfinder aufgeführt, die versucht haben so eine Maschine in der 1. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts zu bauen.
- The idea of replacing the external combustion steam engine with an internal combustion liquid fuel engine seized the world's imagination in the late 19th century, but the origins of internal combustion engines can be traced back to early experiments with gunpowder in the late 1600s. Historian Lyle Cummins has noted that at least a dozen inventors tried to develop some form of internal combustion engine by the early 19th century.30
Der erste echte Verbrennungsmotor in Amerika, entwickelt von Samuel Morey um 1826, lief mit Alkohol und Terpentine. Er hat ihn in einen kleinen Wagen eingebaut und ist mit einem Boot mit einer Geschwindigkeit von 8 Meilen pro Stunde den Connecticut River hochgefahren. Aber wie viele Erfinder, war er nie in der Lage Geldgeber aufzutun und nur der Prototyp wurde gebaut.
- The first authentic internal combustion engine in America, developed by Samuel Morey around 1826, ran on ethyl alcohol and turpentine. It powered an experimental wagon and a small boat at eight miles per hour up the Connecticut river. Morey, like many other inventors, was never able to attract financing for his idea and only the prototype was built.31
Ein anderer früher Entwickler des Verbrennungsmotors war Nicholas August Otte. In einer frühen Version seines Motors von 1860 verwendete er Spiritus, der zu Beleuchtungszwecken audh in Europa weit verbreitet war. Er erfand den Vergaser, der wie schon bei Morey den Alkohol erwärmte und ihn so zum Verdampfen brachte, bevor der Motor lief. Sein Patet von 1861 wurde annulliert, weil das Verdampfen von Alkohol schon in Lampen weit verbreitet gewesen war. Es ist bemerkenswert, daß sein Geldgeber Eugen Langen eine Zuckerfabrik besaß und vermutlich Verbindungen zum Alkoholmarkt in Europa hatte. Der Erfolg von Otto & Langen beruhte auf stationären Motoren, die
- Another early developer of the internal combustion engine was German inventor Nicholas August Otto. In 1860, Otto used ethyl alcohol as a fuel in an early engine because it was widely available for spirit lamps throughout Europe. He devised a carburetor which, like Morey's, heated the alcohol to help it vaporize as the engine was being started. But a January 1861 patent application with the Kingdom of Prussia was turned down, probably because heated alcohol carburetion was already being widely used in spirit lamps.32 It is interesting to note that Otto's initial financing came from Eugen Langen, who owned a a sugar refining company that probably had links to the alcohol markets of Europe. Of course, the Otto & Langen company went on to success in the 1870s by producing stationary gas engines (usually powered by coal gas) and the later "Otto-cycle" engine was fueled primarily with gasoline but was still adaptable to alcohol or benzene from coal.
Numerous other engine prototypes were developed using alcohol or turpentine, including US inventor George Brayton's engine developed in the 1870s. However, at the dawn of the automotive age, kerosene was widely available and gasoline, although volatile and dangerous for lamps, was cheap and very much in surplus.
Promoting Alcohol Fuel in Europe 1890 - 1914
During the 1890 - 1914 time period, German, French and British scientists and government officials were worried about the longevity of oil reserves and the unpredictable nature of oil supplies from Russia and America. "The oil trust battles between Rockefeller, the Rothschilds, the Nobels and Marcus Samuel's Shell kept prices in a state of flux, and engines often had to be adaptable to the fuel that was available," said Cummins.33 Manufacturing companies in Germany, England and France sold engines equipped to handle a variety of fuels. In tropical nations where oil supplies were quite irregular, and in closed environments such as mines and factories, alcohol engines were often preferred.
With few domestic oil reserves, France and Germany especially were eager to encourage widespread development of a fuel that could be readily distilled from domestic farm products. Research at the Experimental Mechanical Laboratory of Paris and at the Deutsche Landwirtschaftliche Gesellschaft in Berlin in the 1890s helped pave the way for expanded use of alcohol fuel.34 By 1896, horseless carriages were showing up on roads in Europe and the United States, and internal combustion engines were also beginning to replace steam engines in light machinery and farm equipment. The question of whether gasoline or alcohol was the better fuel often provoked spirited debate, and numerous races between cars with different fuels were held in Europe.
One of these races took place in 1899 with four alcohol fueled vehicles racing from Paris to Chantilly. Only one made the entire distance.35 Two years later, 50 vehicles ranging from light quadracycles to heavy trucks made the 167 mile trek from Paris to Roubaix. The rallys were sponsored by the Automobile Club of Paris and fuels varying from pure alcohol to 50 percent alcohol and 50 percent gasoline were measured for each vehicle before and after the 1902 rally. Most drivers apparently preferred the 50-50 blend.36
Exhibits of automobiles held every year contained large proportions of alcohol fueled cars, and the growing enthusiasm was reflected in the 1902 Paris exhibit (mentioned above in the introduction). The exhibit was devoted to alcohol powered automobiles, farm machinery and a wide variety of lamps, stoves, heaters, laundry irons, hair curlers, coffee roasters and every conceivable household appliance and agricultural engine powered by alcohol. Many of these were not experimental items but represented a well established industry. By one estimate, some 95,000 alcohol fueled stoves and 37,000 spirit lamps were made in Germany in 1902.37 The exhibit published a set of papers and speeches,.38 and was reported in many newspapers and technical journals of the day. Eight other exhibitions and congresses on alcohol fuels took place -- in Germany, France, Italy and Spain between 1901 and 1904.39 Meanwhile, French fuel alcohol production rose from 2.7 million gallons in 1900 to 5.7 million gallons in 1903 and 8.3 million in 1905.40 Enthusiasm over the marriage of agriculture and industry in alcohol fuel was not the only motivation for French interest. A very practical problem was the decline in French sugar beet exports and rising surplus of many crops. Another concern was the increase in oil imports from the U.S. and the lack of domestic oil reserves.41
Germans were also concerned about a domestic fuel supply that would also provide farmers with new markets for crops. In 1899, the German government organized the Centrale fur Spiritus Verwerthung (office of alcohol sales) which maintained alcohol prices at an equilibrium with petroleum at around the equivalent of 27 cents per gallon through subsidies to alcohol producers and a tariff on imported oil.42 Other incentives included scientific prizes, including a medallion from the emperor offered for the best alcohol engines. As a result, alcohol production rose from 10 million gallons to about 26 million gallons between 1887 and 1904.43 "To Kaiser William II, it seems, we are indebted for the great, new industry," said a New York Times magazine writer in 1906. "Not that he discovered the fuel, but that he forced its use on Germany. The Kaiser was enraged at the Oil Trust of his country, and offered prizes to his subjects and cash assistance ... to adapt [alcohol] to use in the industries."44
According to a representative of the Otto Gas Engine Works of Philadelphia, by 1906 ten percent of the engines being produced by the firm's parent company in Germany were designed to run on pure ethyl alcohol, while one third of the heavy locomotives produced at the Deutz Gas engine works of Germany ran on pure ethyl alcohol.45 Alcohol engines were advertised as safer than steam engines (as they did not give off sparks from smokestacks) and far cleaner than kerosine or gasoline engines. In a survey conducted around 1903, some 87 percent of German farmers considered alcohol engines to be equal or superior to steam engines in performance.46 Conflicting reports on the number of German distilleries at least give some idea of the scale of the enterprise. By one 1906 account, some 72,000 distilleries operated, of which 57,000 were small farm "Materialbrennereien" stills producing a total of 27 million gallons.47 Another account, from 1914, put the number at 6,000 distilleries producing 66 million gallons of alcohol per year.48
These alcohol stills may have had the effect of prolonging World War I. According to Irish engineer Robert Tweedy, when oil shortages seemed likely to paralyze Germany's transportation system in 1915, thousands of engines were quickly modified. "Every motor car in the empire was adapted to run on alcohol. It is possible that Germany would have been beaten already [by 1917] if production of alcohol had not formed an important part of the agricultural economy."49
zur Situation in Deutschland Graskraft\Rohstoffwunder Spiritus
