Torpedo Juice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article is about an alcoholic beverage. For the novel by Tim Dorsey, see Torpedo Juice (novel).

Torpedo Juice is a term used to describe an alcoholic beverage in World War II which was made from the high grain alcohol fuel used in torpedo motors and cleaning alcohol. The US Mark XIV torpedo was powered by a miniature steam engine burning ethyl alcohol with compressed air (or in some mods, compressed oxygen). The ethyl alcohol was denatured by addition of a substance known as "pink lady", but the pink lady could be (largely) removed by filtering the alcohol through a compressed loaf of bread.

With the introduction of the electric powered US Mark XVIII torpedo, ethyl alcohol was no longer required for torpedoes; however, limited quantities were (and are) still required by the Electrician's Mates and Interior Communications Electricians on board ship for the purpose of cleaning slip rings, commutators, and carbon brushes on a wide variety of equipment.

The standard recipe for torpedo juice is two parts ethyl alcohol and three parts pineapple juice.