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Rocket City Rednecks Moonshine Rocket Fuel Facts

Photo: Moonshine rocket

Photo: Moonshine rocket (View larger version)

Photograph by NGC and Flight 33

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  • Whiskey (or whisky) is a Gaelic word meaning “water of life”.

  • The name “Mountain Dew” was first trademarked by Ally and Barney Hartman in the 1940s, who coined the name from a colloquial term for moonshine whiskey.

  • Alcohol fuels produce less carbon monoxide than gasoline.

  • Henry Ford preferred ethanol fuel back in the Model T’s early days.

  • High octane gasoline as well as ethyl alcohol fuel blends typically stay in the same price range, while alcohol has been cheaper.

  • The "jake leg" or "jake walk" was a permanent, debilitating condition that caused partial paralysis in the legs from drinking a moonshine-like substance that was distilled with Jamaican ginger, or by drinking Jamaican ginger, which was usually 70 percent alcohol.

  • To shorten the distillation and aging period of moonshine, many moonshiners would add dangerous substances such as lye, battery acid, or other caustics, which would result in a product that could potentially kill or seriously injure the drinker.

  • A study published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research states that people who don’t consume any alcohol at all tend to die before people who do.

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