206 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



great illuminating powers, the patentee proposes to combine it with 

 30 to 40 per cent, of atmospheric air, and to burn it by means of pecu- 

 liarly constructed burners, having a platinum wick, and with the tubes 

 of the burners made larger than in the ordinary gas-lamp, and placed 

 obliquely ; the platinum attains a white heat, and great illuminating 

 power is thus obtained. But as this process for increasing the illumi- 

 nating power of peat-gas may be objected to, the patentee proposes to 

 carburet the peat-gas. In addition to gas and ammonia, he also 

 obtains from the distillation of peat a peculiar acid, and a bitumino- 

 adipose compound, which he calls " paranaphthadipose," as contain- 

 ing principally the elements of a hydro-carbon which produces a light 

 naphtha, &c. One of the products of this is a good solvent of gutta- 

 percha, caoutchouc, &c. A great variety of other products are ob- 

 tained by chemical treatment. 



Experiments made according to the above specifications have, it is 

 said, been conducted on an extensive scale, with the most satisfactory 

 results. The following statement has been published as the annual 

 expenditure and produce of the trial works for one year : 



Expenditure. 



36,500 tons of peat, at 2s. per ton, 3,650 



455 tons of sulphuric acid, at 7, . . . . 3,185 



Wear and tear of apparatus, &c., ..... 700 



Wages, labor, &c., 2,000 



Cost of sending to market, and other incidental charges, . 2,182 



Profit, 11,908 



Total, . ... 23,625 



Produce. 



365 tons of sulphate of ammonia, at 12 per ton, . 4,380 



255 tons of acetate of lime, at 14, . . . 3,570 



19,000 gallons of naphtha, at 5s., ..... 4,750 



109,500 pounds of paraffine, at Is., .... 5,475 



73,000 gallons of volatile oil, at Is., .... 3,650 



36,000 gallons of fixed oil, at Is., .... 1,800 



Total, .23,625 



POWER OF PEAT-CHARCOAL TO REMOVE COLORING MATTERS. 



A WRITER in the London Journal of Arts for December states that 

 the peat-charcoal which is left in the retorts after all the volatile con- 

 stituents of peat have been distilled away, possesses the property of 

 depriving colored vegetable solutions of the whole of their coloring 

 matters. The writer finds that 25 per cent, more of this charcoal is 

 needed than of bone-black, but the latter is about six times as expen- 

 sive. Before using the peat-charcoal it must be purified from iron and 

 sulphate of lime, and all alkaline matters. 



