How do you extract Methanol (Wood Alcohol) in the Wild?

Question

I was reading in my chemistry textbook that ancient civilizations extracted methanol from wood, but it didn't explain how.

What exactly is the process of extracting Methanol?

(And not through distillation)

Answer 1

And what makes you so sure that distillation was not involved?

The oldest known recorded methods for obtaining Methanol all were based upon the Pyrolysis of wood chips or saw dust size particles of wood.  This was done by heating the wood in such a way that the oxygen in the atmosphere could not reach the wood while it was being heated.

Pure Methanol was first obtained by Robert Boyle in 1661 (by repeated distillations).  Prior to this crude solutions of Methanol were made by the same methods used by ancient civilizations.

Answer 2

The ancient Egyptions apparently extracted methanol through pyrolysis (wood distillation) except they didn't use it as methanol, but rather the overall product of pyrolysis.  I don't think it was recognized as a unique substance until 1661.

I can't speculate as to the specifics of the process.  That would be the domain of an ancient technology expert.  But more generally, it's just anhydrous pyrolysis:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrolysis#A...