1864.] DR. T. STERRY HUNT ON PEAT. 429 



knives, placed obliquely. The pulp thus obtained is moulded into 

 convenient shapes, and consolidated by a hydraulic or other press 5 

 after which the blocks are dried by artificial heat. The use of 

 hydraulic pressure was several years since tried on an extensive 

 scale, by Mr. C. M. Williams at Cappogue in Ireland. He, having 

 broken up the peat, placed it in layers between cloths, and subjected 

 it to a powerful hydraulic press. By this means, he succeeded 

 in reducing it to one half its original weight, and to one third its 

 volume. The remaining water was, however, difficult to be 

 expelled from the consolidated peat ; and the more fibrous varieties 

 expanded a good deal in drying. This experiment was lately 

 repeated, on a considerable scale, by the Irish Peat Company ; 

 and with similar results. They also built large drying-houses, in 

 which attempts were made to dry ordinary peat by artificial heat ; 

 but the quantity of fuel required to expel the great amount of 

 water from the peat, was found to be so considerable that the pro- 

 cess was not economical. 



A different plan was some years since proposed for overcoming 

 certain of the difficulties of the problem ; which was, after drying 

 peat in the ordinary manner, to pulverize it by passing it through 

 rollers, then to drive off the remaining water by heat, and consoli- 

 date the dry powder by powerful pressure. This process is fol- 

 lowed at Rosenheim, in southern Bavaria, where the peat is made 

 into small blocks of eight or ten ounces, and weighing from seventy 

 to eighty pounds to a cubic foot. The latter weight corresponds 

 to a specific gravity of 1.25, which is nearly that of bituminous 

 coal. (Percy's Metallurgy, vol. i, p. 78.) Several patents, based 

 upon this plan of dry compression, have been within the last few 

 years obtained in England ; but practical difficulties were met with, 

 in the machinery for compression ; besides which, as Mr. Hodgson 

 has well remarked, the great problem of obtaining a cheap and 

 abundant supply of dried and powdered peat still remained. This 

 however, according to him, is in great measure resolved by a sim- 

 ple expedient. By passing a very light harrow over the surface of 

 the bog, a thin layer is broken up. After a few hours of exposure 

 to the air, for draining and partial drying, it is removed by scrap- 

 ing ; and in this way a powdered peat, far drier than the general 

 mass, may be obtained every day when it does not rain. The 

 material thus collected costs five pence the ton, and contains, on an 

 average, forty-five per cent of solid matter; while recently-cut 

 peat contains only ten per cent. It is heaped in embankments^. 



