73 [Jackson, 



is so porous that it Is also difficult to extinguish when converted into char- 

 coal. Compression has been tried in vain, as the pulpy peat was forced 

 out from the bags and machines. Drying by fire cost more fuel than 

 the peat was worth, and hence the enterprise was generally abandoned. 



Recently, however, it has been discovered that if the sphagnum 

 fibres were removed from the pulpy peat, it could be dried in the 

 open air or under sheds with glazed roofs, and that the peat then be- 

 came perfectly soHd and nearly as hard as horn, thus becoming suita- 

 ble for fuel, and much better for the smelting of iron, being easily con- 

 vertible into very solid charcoal of sufficient firmness for the forge or 

 furnace. The fibre is removed by two diffi^rent kinds of machinery. 

 The first was an English machine, consisting of a cone revolving in 

 another cone pierced like a cullender, the peat in fine pulp being forced 

 out in ropy masses of the size of a man's little finger, while the fibre was 

 cut up fine. The other is an American invention, due to two Boston 

 mechanics, consisting of a series of combs which comb out the fibre, after 

 which the fine peat is forced by an endless screw through a tube, from 

 which it issues in a large cylindrical mass five inches in diameter, in 

 a continuous stream. This is spread on boards and cut into squares like 

 bricks, and allowed to dry partially in the open air, and then under 

 glazed sheds, until it becomes very compact and hard as horn, 

 when it can be used for fuel in the place of coal. It is also advanta- 

 geous to have this fuel in regular brick-like forms, since it packs com- 

 pactly on board steamships and no space is lost by vacuities. 



This peat fuel contains no sulphur, and is found to be the best fuel 

 for annealing iron wire, especially for piano-forte wires, and is also un- 

 objectionable for furnace uses, as it does not, like coal, contain sulphur 

 that would tend to deteriorate the iron. Anthracite dust is also to be 

 worked into this fuel for furnace uses and may thus be economized. A 

 patent has been granted to parties in this State for this improvement. 



The manufactory of peat fuel is now in operation in the town of Lex- 

 ington, twelve miles from Boston, with every prospect of success, and 

 I have no doubt that many of our great peat bogs will soon have the 

 requisite machinery placed near them, and that a large supply of this 

 valuable fuel will soon be in our market in competition with the coals 

 of Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia. At the collieries of Pennsylvania 

 millions of tons of fine screenings of Anthracite are piled up around the 

 mines. This coal dust, before useless, will soon find a market at the 

 north for mixing with our peat. 



I have seen good gun-powder made from peat charcoal, and 

 I have made blasting powder suitable both for civil and military 

 mining, by mixing peat with a saturated solution of boiling nitrate of 

 soda, and then stirring in pulverized sulphur, by the same process that 

 blasting powder is made of waste tan bark in Belgium. 



