Alcohol

Around A.D 1100 an unknown alchemist, probably in souther Italy, destiled some wine. He got a clear, colorless fluid with a strange odor. Through this strange new fluid looked like water, it did not behave new at all like water. It had a burning taste. When it wa drunk, it had powerful intoxicating effects. Strangest of all, it burned with a hot, blue flame. This mysterious “burning water,” which the alchemists believed was the spirit of wine, was ethyl alcohol.

Today hundreds of different alcohols are know. Some are clear, colorless fluid that mix freely with water. They evaporate quickly in open air. They have low freezing points. Ethyl alcohol freezes at about –1170C (-1790F). Other alcohols behave quite differently. They are thick, oily fluids that hardly mix with water at all. Some are even solid at room temperature.

Alcohols are made up of atoms of carbon, hudrogen, and oxygen. The carbon atoms from kind of framework around which the hydrogen and oxygen atoms are arranged.
In industry, alcohols are used as raw materials for making many other chemicals. They are also used to dissolve fats, oils, and may organic (carbon containing) substance, include some plastic. Another use is to extract flavoring oil, perfumes, and drugs from plant and animal materials. Some alcohols are burned as fuels in rockets. Scientists are testing the use of alcoholic fuels in automobiles and other land vehicles.
In the home, ethyl alcohol is found in antiseptics, flavorings, perfumes, and liquor. Colored red for visibility, it is used as the fluid in outdoor thermometers. Isopropyl alcohol is used as rubbing alcohol.

All the alcohols exept glycerol are more or less poisonous. Methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) is extremely poisonous, and even a small amount can couse blindness or death. Denatured alcohol is ethyl alcohol that has been made undrinkable by adding poisons or unpleasant-tasting chemicals to it.