PEAT FOR SMELTING IRON. 337 



neatest and most fastidious housekeeper would be proud and 

 happy to possess in abundant supply. As a fuel for the cook- 

 stove it seems to us that it cannot be excelled by any descrip- 

 tion of wood or coal. In the sick-chamber, too, it has an 

 especial value, from the case with which it is kindled, and the 

 tenacity with which it retains fire ; while, in the open grate it 

 burns with a brisk, cheerful flame, when first ignited, and after- 

 wards, for a long time, with an intense glowing heat that is 

 especially agreeable. 



OTHER USES OP PEAT. 



Having already alluded to the value of peat for domestic use, 

 and for the generation of steam in locomotives and stationary 

 engines, we wish now to present a few items of testimony from 

 sources equally reliable, with the hope that they may serve as 

 suggestions to the manufacturers of iron, in this Commonwealth, 

 to study their own interests so far as to ascertain if similar 

 results can be attained, from the peat bogs of Massachusetts, to 

 those which have been realized by some of the iron masters of 

 the old world. It has long been known that charcoal, of an 

 inferior quality, could be made from blocks of peat prepared in 

 the usual way, by the old methods in use before the introduc- 

 tion of modern machinery ; and such charcoal, poor as it was, 

 was greatly prized in some localities where wood charcoal was 

 unattainable, for forging purposes. The presence of sulphur in 

 coal used in the smelting or forging of iron and in the annealing 

 of wire is very prejudicial to the strength and tenacity of the 

 metal ; and it has been found that condensed peat, and charcoal 

 prepared from that material, produces iron equal in quality to 

 that which is prepared by the exclusive use of wood charcoal. 

 At " Piatt's Iron Works," in Oldham, England, " peat charcoal 

 was subjected to the severest tests, and produced a quality of 

 iron so perfect as to admit of being completely doubled when 

 cold, without exhibiting a single crack." At a meeting of the 

 " Society of Arts " in England, a few years since, Mr. W. E. 

 Newton, remarked, that " every iron manufacturer knew that if 

 he could get good peat to stand the blast, that it was infinitely 

 superior to coal for their purposes, for the simple reason, that it 

 contained no sulphur. They could produce iron with peat from 

 the worst brands which would almost equal the best Swedish 

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