They added "syrup of Ipecac" or something to it in this country and you would have to have absolutely no taste to drink that. When that was done, I had to carry the burner for my metho stove seperately from everything else, because one drip really ruined a nice cuppa. Made me wonder how much of it I had drunk in the past before it had a taste.
Back in the UK where I grew up 'meths' was always a purple colour and had a distinctive smell (don't know what it tasted like as I never had the courage to try it....lol). It was however the drink of choice for the 'tramps' (hobos) and street people as it was readily available, cheap and I suppose gave one heck of a kick!
We always had at least one bottle of the stuff in our home growing up as it had a multitude of uses but I primarily used it in the burners for my model steam engines and my parents used it when camping in the good old 'Primus' pressurized paraffin (kerosene) camp stoves and storm lamps. 'Meths' was used as the primary fuel to heat the burner prior to opening the valve on the pressurized paraffin. I well remember the 'flare ups' that would occur if the valve was opened before the burner had reached the required temperature. Instead of a nice ring of blue flames or a bright light you got huge yellow flames and lots of black smoke....lol. The smell of 'meths' or paraffin still takes me back to those days of my youth.
I often wondered about it's usefulness as a cleaner/solvent though as the purple dye would be left behind after the 'meths' had evaporated away. Isopropyl alcohol has now largely replaced 'meths' as a cleaner/solvent due to it's clean evaporation properties.
Nothing dissolves it but it can be swelled and softened by many chemicals including xylene and toluene. When Iwas a kid I replaced the fule reserve valve in a Vespa Motor scooter, and used a generous gob of silicone rubber to seal the gasket. A few weeks later, the machine STOPPED. I looked into the tank and saw what looked for all the world like a flock of jellyfish floating around in the tank. The stuff swelled up hugely and then broke loose and swam around until one of the things got into the fuel line.
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I have heard and seen hobos and whino's etc drinking that stuff, as well as melting down sterno camp fuels and drinking that. Was always told if you run it through a loaf of bread as a filter, it will remove the bad stuff thats in it, and give you drinkable (to them anyhow) stuff..........Don;t know if the filtering it through a loaf of bread is an old wives tale or not, but I have heard it many times over........
============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
Yes, denatured alcohol.
Ethanol with ca. 10% methanol, +5%(about) water,+ pyridine to make it stink, + Crystal Violet (so nobody mistakes it for water).
Much lower Excise duty on it in the U.K. than on pure alcohol (ethanol).
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