PEAT FOR LOCOMOTIVES. 333 



engine worked well and took us along pretty sharp, as we mado 

 up the 40 minutes in going 25 miles, and arrived at Port Byron 

 on time. The steam did not run below 120 pounds any of the 

 time, and was often from 125 to 130 pounds. When the engine 

 was working the strongest she would steam the best. 



" We made time all the way very easy, although we had a 

 strong head wind all the way, and snowing at times quite fast, 

 and very cold. We took on a trifle over four tons of peat at 

 Syracuse, which was all we had. We could have run to Fair- 

 port with it (71 miles,) if we had not been detained at Palmyra 

 about one hour and a half. It gave us as much steam as wood, 

 and burned a beautiful fire. Our trip was a perfect success, and 

 I am sorry that there were not more present to witness it. We 

 used a coal-burning grate that we could shake and get the ashes 

 out of the furnace. 



" I am confident that we can use peat in locomotives for fuel, 

 or for stationary engines with the peat properly cured and the 

 right kind of grate used for burning it in. 



" Yours truly, H. Watkeys, Master Machinist. 



■>■> 



A similar trial, a little later, on the Hudson River Railroad, 

 was equally satisfactory. 



The " Hartford (Conn.) Press " closes its description of a 

 visit of a party of gentlemen to the iEtna peat-works near 

 Berlin : — 



" The train was drawn by the ' C. F. Pond,' burning peat that 

 was not thoroughly prepared. A speed of forty-five miles an 

 hour was attained over a portion of the road without difficulty. 

 The fuel question is not yet entirely settled, but experiments 

 thus far point to complete success in the use of peat, and we 

 shall yet see the time when the swamps of New England will 

 yield a crop as valuable as that produced from her most fertile 

 fields." 



From a work upon " The Nature and Uses of Peat," written 

 and published by J. H. Benham, Esq., of New Haven, we copy 

 the following account of a trial of peat for locomotive fuel 

 recently made in that vicinity : — 



" On the 2d day of June, 1866, a trial was made on the New 

 Haven, Hartford and Springfield Railroad. A coal-burning 

 engine, fired with peat, drew a train from Hartford to Spring- 



