526 PEAT AND TDEF 



In the present state of the oil-manufacture, Is. per gallon would have to be deducted 

 from the above-estimated results for burning oil. 



Dr. Reynolds, as the Chairman of a Committee of the Royal Dublin Society on the 

 use of peat by Siemens' regenerative furnace, reports very favourably of its use in 

 manufactories requiring high heats. Ordinary air-dried- peaty- containing on an average 

 25 per cent, of water, when used in this furnace, compares more favourably with coal than 

 in any other known way. The general heating power of 24- tons of peat is about 

 equivalent in practice to that of one ton of average coal ; but in the Siemens' furnace 

 its value appears equivalent to not less than 65 per cent, of that of Staffordshire coal. Mr. 

 Siemens also states that peat mixed with-25 per cent, of coal -dust gives a richer gas than 

 peat alone. At Carlstadt, Munkfors, Sweden, F. Lundin has employed peat in iron- 

 smelting containing as much as 45 per cent, of water. The resulting gas, which contains 

 about 33 Ibs. of water to 100 Ibs. dry gas, is deprived of its vapour in a condensing 

 arrangement of iron tubes, weighing 3,500 Ibs., laid crosswise, and on which a jet of 

 water plays. The heat of the gas before condensation always melts lead easily, and 

 sometimes zinc. The results have been so satisfactory that a national testimonial has 

 been presented to the inventor. This peat-furnace is preferred to that fed by dry 

 wood, which only produces in the generators gas of a temperature of 1394 ; whereas 

 the gas from the first furnace is 2666 ; less water is lodged in the condensers and 

 the repairs are less. It is said one Lundin furnace costs in Sweden about 900 ; and 

 it utilises 1,700 tons of ore in a year [vide Reports of the United States' Commissioners 

 to the Paris Universal Exposition, 1867]. 



There exists already above 100 patents for making and converting raw peat into fuel 

 for steam and domestic purposes. The favourite methods with inventors of treating 

 the crude peat have been compression by hydraulic power, separation of the vegetable 

 fibre from the matrix, maceration, grinding, and rapid drying by heated air. These 

 modes of dealing with peat are all liable to failure from various causes. Generally peat 

 will yield an average of 70 per cent, of water, and any process that aims at getting 

 rid of the water in a rapid manner has not been found to answer. The application of 

 a high degree of heat seems to overbake the peat and rob it of a large amount of its 

 calorific value. The attempt to abstract the ligneous fibre from the humus of the 

 peat is a costly experiment, to deprive the peat of its most substantial and valuable 

 material for the purposes of fuel. 



The Clay ton 'method is simply to cut the peat into fragments in its raw and moist 

 state, drain off as much of the water as will freely run away ; then masticate the fibres 

 and whole mass of peat together in a machine until it becomes difficult to distinguish 

 any ligneous fibre distinct from the humus in which it is so entirely mixed. The 

 peat when first cut is put into what they call squeezing-trucks ; these trucks are per- 

 forated in the bottom and sides, and in the journey to the works a large proportion of 

 the free water is squeezed out by the action of a screw or lever. The mastication or 

 trituration of the peat is effected by means of a vertical shaft carrying a series of cut- 

 ting-blades set round like a screw, and by means of these.the peat is forced down into 

 a long horizontally-placed cylinder. A revolving shaft, on which are a forcing screw, 

 and a set of discs forming a dissecting double screw, passes through the centre of this 

 cylinder, and cutting-blades of hard steel are fitted on the end of the cylinder furthest 

 from the hopper. The peat, being forced into the horizontal cylinder by the blades 

 and screws, is driven by every revolution of the discs against the cutters, thus effec- 

 tively reducing the whola to a .pulpy mass. 



The pulped peat is then forced out through orifices in the end of the cylinder on to 

 rollers which carry it to trays, where it is cut into lengths, and then taken to drying 

 sheds, where it remains about three .days; it is then dry enough to be stacked in open 

 racks, where the final drying is completed. 



The most important feature in this system is the breaking up of the cellular tissues 

 of the peat, and thus getting rid of .the fixed moisture : and the remarkable reduction 

 in the size of the blocks of peat during the process of drying shows that this is done 

 in the most complete manner. The condensed peat becomes very firm and solid, and 

 the whole process does not take more than seven or eight days. Messrs. Clayton, Son, 

 and Howlett assert that this fuel can be produced at a cost of from five to six shillings 

 a ton. 



Danchelle's peat-fuel and peat-filters for sewage were exhibited at Manchester, 

 in 1874. The samples of manufactured peat-fuel made from the light brown moss, 

 of Red Moss, Horwick, Lancashire, differed from other specimens of peat-fuel, in 

 that the humus and ligneous fibre of the peat were macerated and reduced to a state 

 of a fine chocolate-paste. The machine used to effect this consists of a long cylinder, 

 in which works a shaft armed with proper cutters and discs, by which the crude peat 

 is soon reduced to the consistency of pasty pulp, and issues in a long roll of any shape 

 or diameter ; this is cut into briquettes by a wired frame, and tho briquettes are dried 





