CHARCOAL 



765 



PKAT CHARCOAL. Numerous attempts have been made from time to time to 

 utilise the peat of our bogs, and especially to bring peat charcoal into use for 

 smelting iron, and other metallurgical processes. As far back as 1712, we are told 

 by Carlowitz, that peat was charred in piles or stacks as wood is. Vogel informs us 

 that in 1735, poat charcoal was made in the Hartz. Numerous experiments have 

 been made on the Continent to produce a charcoal from peat, which should answer 

 the requirements of metallurgy. None of these appear to have been entirely success- 

 ful. Within the last few years, experiments have been made in Ireland to smelt the 

 haematite iron ore of Cumberland with peat charcoal. The exact results of the 

 experiments have not been made known, but, certain it is, they did not promise to be 

 commercially successful, and the idea has long been abandoned. We learn from the 

 report of Sir Eobert Kane, that the relative quantities of charcoal and other sub- 

 stances produced from a hundred parts of peat were found to be : 



Charcoal 

 Tarry matter 

 Watery products 

 Gases . 



Average 

 29-222 

 2-787 

 31-378 

 36-616 



Maximum 



39-132 



4-417 



38-127 



57-746 



Minimum 



18-973 



1-462 



21-819 



25-018 



From the same report we glean the following tables, giving the determinations of 

 carbon, &c., in different peats : 



The following results were obtained by Sir Robert Kane, from peats from the Irish 

 Dgs ; and published in the Proceedings of the Eoyal Irish Academy : 



Carbon 

 Hydrogen . 

 Oxygen 

 Ash , 



Kilbeggan 

 in 'Westmeath 

 . 61-04 

 6-67 



. 30-45 

 1-83 



Kilbaha 



in Clare 



51-13 



6-33 



34-48 



8-06 



Cappoge 



inKildaro 



51-05 



6-85 



39-55 



2-25 



The determinations of charcoal and volatile matters found in peat in the following 

 table, are : 1. from Hue, in Department of Somme ; and 2. from Abbeville, by Berthior ; 

 3. from Vaucluse, by Diday; 4. from Se"cheral, by Sauvage ; and 5. from Kildaro; 

 6. from Kilbeggan ; 7. from Kilbaha ; and 8. Cappoge, by Sir Eobert Kane : 



Charcoal . 

 Volatile matter. 

 Ash . . 



1 



21-0 

 72-0 



7-0 



2 

 23-0 



72-2 

 4-8 



3 



17-3 

 65-3 



17-4 



4 



22-0 

 39-2 



8-3 



5 



23-82 

 73-63 



2-55 



6 



22-67 

 75-50 



1-83 



7 8 



72-14 23-65 



72-80 70-10 



8-06 6-24 



Peat is usually charred by methods similar to those employed for the carbonisation 

 of wood. Kilns, variously constructed, have been used, but the success attending 

 the production of peat charcoal by them, has not been sufficiently great to induce us 

 to occupy space with any description of them. 



In 1849, Mr. Vignoles, C.E., patented a process for charring peat by steam, super- 

 heated to the melting point of tin or lead. Pulped peat is thrown in mass into a 

 cylindrical drum-shaped vessel, divided, if necessary, into compartments, whicn is 

 caused to revolve with great rapidity upon an axis the velocity requisite being such 

 as shall drive off the water or other fluid from the solid parts, of the peat or turf by 

 centrifugal force. When all the water is removed from the peat by this process, and 

 it is in a coherent mass, it is removed and moulded into blocks. These blocks are 

 put into largo cylindrical iron vessels, into which steam, at from 45 Ibs. to 60 Ibs. 

 pressure per square inch, is admitted, after a process of superheating, by traversing 

 iron tubes heated to bright redness. This process, although strongly recommended, 

 has never been practically adopted. 



Peat charcoal, as far as heating power is concerned, ranks among the best kinds of 



