206 Fuel Economy. ‘April, 
Folloms and Bate, of Manchester, exhibit a large collec- 
tion of stoves and fire-grates. One of their novelties isa 
Portable Water-Boiler, which consists of an upper and 
lower chamber, and is so constructed that the upper 
chamber is filled with cold water, and as the hot water is 
drawn off from the lower, the cold water is allowed to fall 
down through a small pipe, so that there is a constant 
supply of warm water. It will boil 11 gallons in 20 minutes, 
or three or four hundred persons can be supplied with hot 
water for tea at a cost of 3 lbs. of coal. 
There is a very good show of various kinds of peat and 
patent fuel, with the necessary apparatus for condensing and 
purifying peat. 
Kidd’s process for carbonising peat consists of a large 
chamber or drying-room connected with a boiler which 
supplies superheated steam; from the boiler a steam-pipe 
passes through the furnace, and from thence into the flue ; 
the steam, in its passage over the boiler-fire, becomes super- 
heated, and, together with the smoke, passes into the drying- 
chamber; the peat, cut into pieces about the size of bricks, 
is put into a framework which runs upon wheels, so that it 
easily runs into the drying chamber, and is run out again © 
when finished, thus saving a great deal of labour. The 
object of Kidd’s process is the collection of the heated gases 
referred to in a closed chamber, where they may be usefully 
employed in charring peat, or converting it into charcoal ; 
an artificial draught is created by jets of superheated steam, 
and the whole products of combustion from the furnace are 
forced into and retained by the closed chamber. ‘The 
chamber is filled with peat, which may be dried and charred 
in less than forty-eight hours by the action of the furnace- 
gases and superheated steam; the temperature of the 
chamber soon rises to between 300° and 400° F., and remains 
at some temperature between those limits. By charring 
the peat at a low temperature the loss of hydrocarbons is 
very small, the gases which are poured into the chamber 
being for the most part non-supporters of combustion ; 
consequently it is impossible for the peat to take fire during 
the process of charring. The fuel used in the furnace which 
supplies the gases and generates the steam is peat which 
has been partially dried in the open air. It is estimated 
that a ton of peat charcoal can be produced by this method 
at a cost of 13s. 6d., which sum includes all charges for 
interest on capital, royalties, and labour; raw peat at 3s.a 
ton; that used for fuel, 4s. 6d. per ton. Peat thus prepared 
produces a gas of high illuminating power, ranging between 
