OK. umm hell yes?
" Regardless of the inherent differences between gasoline and alcohol,
though, the fact is that alcohols make ideal motor fuels. The first
practical internal combustion engine - patented by Nikolaus Otto in 1877
- ran on alcohol (gasoline had not been "discovered" yet), and the Model
A Ford, produced from 1928 to 1931, was designed to burn a variety of
fuels ... alcohol being one of them. In addition, Studebaker trucks built
for export in the 1930's (and various domestic tractors sold both in the
U.S. and abroad) were offered with either gasoline or alcohol fuel
systems. (Indeed, at the start of the "motorized era", alcohol was just
as common as - if not more so than - fossil fuels. But as time went on,
the petroleum industry - which was organized and thus more powerful than
the independent, often farm-based alcohol producers - lobbied
successfully for the wholesale use of "superior" gasoline fuels.
Strangely enough, in areas where petroleum had to be exclusively
imported, or during time of war when gasoline supplies were rationed,
alcohol suddenly became an excellent motor fuel again ... and was touted
as such by the petroleum distributors who were selling it!)"
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me1.html
