One of those decidedly minor myths that are not only without historical support, but ignore the fact that the Volstead Act pertained only to beverage alcohol, and specifically exempted ethanol's use as a fuel or for any other industrial, medical, or scientific use.
Winston Churchill had a Doctor’s prescription for booze, when he was in the US. “Necessarily unlimited” amounts the Rx sez. Good to be King, I guess. Or at least Prime Minister.
A bit off topic, but for me one of the interesting things about the Volstead Act was how the folks behind it effectively double-crossed the country into voting for it. The act cleverly banned "intoxicating liquors", without defining exactly what that was - the specifics were to be worked out later by a special commision. By keeping it vague, most people believed that it didn't apply to them, but rather somebody else. Surely my beer was exempt - the same for my wine. We aren't the problem - it's those drunken Irish/Italian/German/hillbilly (etc, etc) folks that have brought this on themselves. So when the commission got together and decided that essentially all alcoholic drink was banned, it was too late to do anything. Except ignore it. Which is what most folks did - and, of course it was eventually overturned. But not before it wiped out most of the small independent breweries around the country, leaving only the largest (who survived by bottling sodas instead) in business. This is one of the reasons why Coors and Budweiser dominated the US market for so many years - they were given a massive head start over everybody else. Anyway, enough history - thank God for the 21st amendment. -Paul
It’s sad, isn’t it? The hipsters think they invented craft beer. Every town of any size had a brewery, but they were all wiped out. It took about 100 years to recover. Home brewing beer (and winemaking) was decriminalized in 1977 in the US; the intent was said to also allow for home distillation as well but a clerical error deleted this provision of the new law. Technically speaking, home distillation of spirits is illegal (unless permits and Tax tributes) in every country except New Zealand, and apparently this too, was only due to some sort of legislative error.
Home winemaking for non-commercial use has been legal under federal law since the end of prohibition in 1933. Homebrewing of beer was left out of the legislation, perhaps inadvertently; it was formally legalized in the 1977 statutes. However, any rule against it was never enforced federally and home-brew supply places operated openly for generations. I did a lot of brewing myself in the 1960s and '70s. My dad made wine in the '70s, and my wife's Croatian granddad made 50 gallons per year most of his adult life. 50% Zinfandel grapes with 50% Muscat was his invariable formula. It had a unique fine flavor. One of my sons and sons-in-law replicated the recipe about 15 years ago and won a blue ribbon for it at the Western Washington State Fair....
Update: I drilled a new Jet to 0.5mm and place on a working SVEA 123. The tank was previously emptied and completely died of any Coleman fuel/Naptha. I added 60ml of high grade Alcohol that I used to preheat my kero/paraffin stoves and lanterns. I used that same alcohol in the Trangia stoves that I own. Tried yesterday and outside temps were in the low 90sF. I preheated the stove 5 times and no joy. I even placed a tank cap that I could add pressure to the tank. No joy. The fount was nice and hot and I added pressure to the tank. Nothing would come out. I tried it on a new set up and place the same jet on the new set up. No change. I figured the wick in the tank may need to soak a while. So, since it was too hot outside for me to play around, I decided to wait until the next morning. This morning it was much nicer outside 77F. So, I preheated the stove 4 times and I got a little alcohol to come out. It sputter and flamed up some but it was very erratic. So, I added some pressure to the tank with a pump. I put about 3 to 4 pumps. I preheated again and I got some action for about 15 seconds. It would flame with irregularity and then sputter some liquid alcohol mist and droplets and flare up again. I tried applying a lighter to the generator to help with vaporization and it help some, but it would go back down to a variable flame and alcohol mist sputtering when the lighter was taken away from the generator. I thought maybe the jet opening was too large so, I reverted back to the original jet. I know that the output would be less but I wanted to see how it would act. Tried the same preheat procedures as above and then tried adding a little pressure when it was not putting out much flame. It would burn some when heated but would revert back flame flare and alcohol sputtering after about 4 or 5 seconds. Currently, the experiment is a fail. It seems it needs higher temps to maintain pressure and to keep the alcohol in vapor form to maintain a flame. I will do some more research and wait for fall, when it is not as hot outside. Until then the experiment will have wait. Cheers, David
Nice work! Your only error that I can see is categorizing your experiment as a fail. On the contrary, you devised a procedure to test your original hypothesis, and came to a solid conclusion. That's the very definition of a successful experiment.
I forgot to say that I love the "Prepared Hero" brand name on the fire-blanket package. The marketing people weren't holding anything back that day.
As you say, it didn't have much effect on the home-brewing community, since it was already skating along beneath the notice of law. But what it absolutely did do was clear the way for small commercial brewers. Every craft brewery in the US should have a photo of Jimmy Carter on the wall, because he's the guy that made their dreams come true.
So you're not getting enough heat conducting back down the stem to warm up enough fuel to vaporize and build up enough pressure to force enough fuel to go through the jet and create the heat that makes the whole cycle work in the first place. Since you can't change the conduction path without redesigning the stove, the only variable you can control is the amount of heat a given amount of fuel produces. So I would either: 1) try a different orifice size (maybe 0.6 - 0.8 mm?); 2) try using a different fuel. The Optimus conversion experiment initially used strait Isopropanol, so perhaps before you try #1, try switching fuels?
Home brewing was also a means whereby large commercial breweries stayed in business during Prohibition, by selling home brewing kits. Even though making beer was illegal, selling the ingredients was not. After all, what the recipient did with that bag of barley and packet of yeast was beyond their control. "You say they are fermenting that barley, officer? I am Shocked! Shocked..."
On reflection, I'm sure you're right. That said and on further reflection, neither approach strikes me as particularly safe. It's a good thing that the OP has the Prepared Hero fire blanket close at hand.
