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Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

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Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#71

Post by devilbunny »

oakwhiz wrote: post #54
folli wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Methanol is a biproduct of fermentation, and will be part of the destillate if not done carefully. I doubt that ethanol used in car and torpedo fuel will go through the same quality control than drinking alcohol.

If I recall correctly, there might be benzene remaining in the alcohol from the water removal process.

Benzene really only shows up in traces if you're trying to get absolute ethanol (100%). You can distill up to 95% ethanol (the EtOH-water azeotrope) without introducing anything else.

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#72

Post by rightbyte »

scottLobster wrote: post #53
rightbyte wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is funny how putting on a uniform instantly makes you ... stupid. It is like a part of your brain shuts off. The social behaviour regress to like 5th grade in adult men. Like of someone tells you you tie your shoes in the wrong way you become a child mentally or something.

You clearly don't know many people in uniform, to make that sort of sweeping generalization.

I am a NCO in the reserve. I am speaking from experience and I can add that I am not arguing I am smart and others are stupid.

Note, that my emphasis is on the system that make people behave strange.

It is somewhat ironic too, since being a soldier exposes you to so many practical and different problems that are so different each time that there is no room to be actually stupid.

And I am not talking about combat, but mundane stuff like, tying a rope between two trees to hang wet cloths on. In normal life people that would fail at stuff like this can get routine and hide that they can't do such tasks without messing up, but soldiers do so much different things that they don't get routine and if you are a bit off you are exposed.

If you are the kinda guy that can tie ropes between trees to dry cloths on, the military structure makes you behave like you would have been "stupid" in many situation that only is a problem because you lack power.

So Soviet or American sailors, that wanted booze but had no way to get it, solved it in the way they could. In civilian life they could just not have put them self in the situation where they couldn't buy booze.

Hazing is maybe a big problem since you are locked in with some jocks you can't escape since the front gate is guarded by MP.

Simple as that. The limitations make you stupid.

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#73

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

cyberax wrote: post #9
m463 wrote: post #3

"American torpedoes utilized 180-proof ethyl alcohol as fuel for the miniature steam engines that drove them toward their targets." I wonder if this was by design ... I think isopropyl alcohol is probably generally available/popular only because it is not drinkable.

Ethyl alcohol is _cheap_. You literally need just a bunch of sugar, yeast, and a still. Straightforward, low-tech, and safe. Isopropyl alcohol needs to be synthesized from acetone, which itself is synthesized.

A 50lb bag of cracked corn is about $12 at Tractor Supply. I've considered making my own moonshine just for the hell of it. Might actually get around to it one of these days.

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#74

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

mrguyorama wrote: post #63
gadtfly wrote: post #6

See also the Mark 14 torpedo, the primary American torpedo in WWII, which didn't actually work for the first 2 years of the war because they had never bothered to actually test it because it would be too expensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_14_torpedo

>because it would be too expensive. Specifically, they didn't want to waste 1-10 torpedoes for testing, which maybe that can be defensible, but it became utterly indefensible when every single submarine came back from patrol with reports of "we launched a spread of 4 torps, 2 hit the hull of the enemy ship, zero detonations". The lost value in un-sunk enemy shipping, the number of dead seaman that should have come ba…

Makes perfect sense to me. If you don't test, then there are no bugs. Field reports can be written off as user error.

/s

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#75

Post by mr_toad »

ninalanyon wrote: post #26
rob74 wrote: post #17

TIL: > Alcohol proof (usually termed simply "proof" in relation to a beverage) is a measure of the content of ethanol (alcohol) in an alcoholic beverage. The term was originally used in England and from 1816 was equal to about 1.75 times the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV). (from Wikipedia)

That omits entirely the origin and meaning of the word proof in this context. Proof originally related to proving that the alcohol content was of such a degree that excise duty was due not to actually measuring the alcohol content. "In 16th-century England, the original test involved soaking a pellet of gunpowder with the liquor. If it was still possible to ignite the wet gunpowder, the alcohol content of the liquor…

The story I heard was that the gunpowder test originated in the Royal Navy.

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#76

Post by [deleted] »

natmaka wrote: post #18
genocidicbunny wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess: jet fuel is commonly kerosene, which if ingested (especially at somewhat palatable dilutions) will majorly fuck you up, but with effects that can somewhat mimic being drunk. That said, it's also going to fry your liver, kidneys, and pretty much anything else, but if you were already a conscript that spent 26 hours a day in a state somewhere between unconscious and drunk, a little kerosene nightcap might be…

Indeed! The man who told me this did not know the reason but his hypothesis was indeed that they wanted to get drunk. Thank you for the details. I heard about Russian women hiding their perfumes for men not to find (and drink) them...

[deleted]

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#77

Post by nradov »

natmaka wrote: post #7

In France, around 1985, an old man said to me that just after WW2 he was, as a French soldier, working in Germany in some airfield or military site which was then used to host Allied soldiers of various nationalities. They had a problem with Soviet soldiers dying due to some poisonous/toxic substance they consumed. It lasted for days, maybe weeks. Nobody had a clue. Then they realized that some/many Soviet soldiers h…

Soviet air force personnel had it better. The Tupolev Tu-22 bomber used a cooling system that contained 40% pure alcohol so of course that was constantly siphoned off.

https://youtu.be/bKoHMXggEHU

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#78

Post by class700 »

RajT88 wrote: post #38
n8henrie wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isopropyl is drinkable (and highly intoxicating). Just very unpleasant to drink and highly irritating to the mucosa.

If I recall correctly, a politician's wife back in the 80's was hospitalized for drinking isopropyl. (Just looked it up on Wikipedia - I recall correctly)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/...

Kitty Dukakis

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#79

Post by n8henrie »

RajT88 wrote: post #38
n8henrie wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isopropyl is drinkable (and highly intoxicating). Just very unpleasant to drink and highly irritating to the mucosa.

If I recall correctly, a politician's wife back in the 80's was hospitalized for drinking isopropyl. (Just looked it up on Wikipedia - I recall correctly)

You can be hospitalized for drinking too much ethanol, or too much water. Are those not drinkable?

I'm an ER physician. I have worked in a poison control center. I take care of the people that drink IPA. I work on the Navajo Native American reservation, where this isn't terribly uncommon.

Re: Torpedo juice: Legendary, illegal WWII liquor drunk in Alaska and the world

#80

Post by n8henrie »

ryandvm wrote: post #60
n8henrie wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isopropyl is drinkable (and highly intoxicating). Just very unpleasant to drink and highly irritating to the mucosa.

"When it comes to drinking rubbing alcohol, the digestive tract suffers the most, even when only swallowing a small amount. The body metabolizes these extremely high alcohol levels into acetone. If consumed to intoxication, the substance can lead to organ damage. Because it's a central nervous system depressant, side effects can include dizziness, headaches and inebriation. Because it's a gastrointestinal irritant, i…

Please see my response to a sibling commenter.

Nearly everything above is also true of ethanol.

Drinking too much water is also lethal.

I take care of plenty of patients that drink IPA. It is not uncommon in both people that think it will kill them and do it as a suicide attempt, as well as people that are desperate for a buzz but can't access ethanol (I work on the Navajo nation where ethanol is illegal and more difficult to obtain).

In general, these patients sober up and go home, just like patients that drink ethanol. Compared to ethanol, patients are much more intoxicated, take much longer to get sober, and are more likely to exhibit symptoms of gastritis or esophagitis. But there is nothing about caring for them that is categorically different than caring for a patient with a significant alcohol ingestion -- in both cases, it is dose dependent.

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