1874.] Fuel Economy. ~ 207 
20 and 22 candles, and 6000 and gooo feet per ton; the gas 
is generated so quickly that three charges of peat can be 
worked off to one of coal, thus effecting considerable 
economy in the plant of gas works. The charcoal which 
remains after the gas has been extracted is also much 
more valuable than the ordinary coal-gas coke. There is, 
no doubt, a large field open for commercial enterprise in 
the manufacture of peat charcoal, owing to its freedom 
from sulphur and its affinity for oxygen at a high tem- 
perature. It is equal to ordinary charcoal for refining 
iron, steel, and other metals. In France, this charcoal, 
under the name of carbon voux, is largely used in the 
manufacture of gunpowder; it has been used as.a fertiliser 
also for filtering water and town sewage, and when com- 
bined with a proper admixture of phosphate of lime it has 
been found useful as a substitute for animal charcoal. 
Henry Clayton and Son show some fine machinery for 
preparing and forming blocks of condensed peat. One of 
the difficulties in preparing peat for the market is to get rid 
of the large amount of water which it contains, as sometimes 
it is met with containing from 55 to 80 per cent. Of this, a 
variable proportion is ‘‘loose, or free water,’’ much of which, 
when present in the larger quantity, can be extracted by 
means of drainage and squeezing ; the great bulk, however, 
of the water is ‘“‘locked up,” confined in the rooty or fibrous 
portion of the peat. So retentive is peat of this fixed water, 
that no pressure, however powerful, can effect its expulsion 
while the peat remains in its natural condition. The 
objects which the Messrs. Clayton aim at are :—To get rid 
of as much water as possible by draining and squeezing, 
then to thoroughly cut up the fibrous or rooty portion, 
releasing the great quantity of water and air which was 
previously fast in the fibre, and reducing the whole to an 
uniform state of pulp. Peat thus prepared will freely and 
rapidly part with its moisture by natural evaporation, and 
in so doing will consolidate itself, and thus acquire a density 
which no pressure of the peat in its natural state could 
produce, becoming very hard and compaét, and of a specific 
gravity nearly equal to coal; in this state it is (unlike the 
common prepared turfs) non-absorbent of water. The 
patentees of the condensed peat say that it produces little 
or no smoke, contains no sulphur, ignites more readily, and 
diffuses the heat more generally and more widely than coal 
itself, leaves no cinder and but little ash. To accomplish 
these objects with peat direct from the bog, the peat is 
filled (as dug) into squeezing-trucks, and during its convey- 
