45 



As it comes from the bog, peat contains from 75 to 80 per cent, 

 water. The fibrous character of the substance prevents the removal of 

 this water by direct pressure and also accounts for the difficulty experi- 

 enced in drying the crude material by exposure to the air. Not only is 

 the moisture held between the fibres of the peat but it is contained in 

 the capillary spaces running through the fibres, and any successful 

 process of fuel making must contemplate the destruction of the fibrous 

 nature of the material. 



At present, investigators are working on two general processes for 

 the conversion of peat into a marketable fuel. The older of these meth- 

 ods may be called the wet process and consists in breaking and grinding 

 the wet peat until it loses its fibrous structure and becomes almost like 

 clay in its plasticity. It is then moulded into blocks of convenient size 

 and allowed to dry spontaneously. In diying, the briquettes shrink to 

 about one-third their original size and become very dense and hard, and 

 when thoroughly dry contain only from 5 to 10 per cent, moisture. Crude 

 poat, that is, peat as it comes from the bog, can not be dried below about 

 20 per cent, moisture, owing to its iibrous nature. 



Peat prepared in this general manner has long been a commercial 

 article in many European countries. Germany, Holland and Russia use 

 large quantities of it, and I am told that more than two million tons are 

 marketed yearly in Sweden. 



Considering the progress which this industry has made in Europe 

 it is sui^prising that America is only beginning to utilize the vast stores 

 of this fuel with which she is so richly supplied. 



In the natural transformation of peat into coal (for coal is but an ad- 

 vanced condition of marsh mud) three fundamental changes take place: 

 the peat is dried, compressed and carbonized. It was an attempt to im- 

 itate this natural process which led to the discovery of another way of 

 making peat briquettes. In this "dry process," as it is called, the peat is 

 first artificially dried and pulverized in machines constructed for that 

 purpose. This dry peat powder is then compressed under heavy pressure 

 into a hard, and dense briquette. While this process produces a briquette 

 of excellent quality, no compressor has as j^et been patented which is a 

 commercial success. The past few years have seen many dry peat-press- 

 ing machines offered on the market, all of which have failed either from 

 actual inability to do the work or from too gTeat cost of operation. 



