528 PECTIC ACID 



blades each forming a quadrant, and so arranged that they form a complete revolution. 

 Knife-like projections in the wooden vessel prevent the peat revolving with the blades 

 and shaft ; the opening for the introduction of the raw peat is at the back on top ; in 

 front is the iron delivery, which may be opened by means of a lover, and contains a 

 wooden conical mould, through which the peat issues in four endless strings or streams 

 on an inclined table, on which it is cut in pieces or blocks of convenient length. The 

 whole of the parts of the machine are so constructed that repairs are reduced to the 

 very minimum. The machine requires one horse, three adults, and three or four boys 

 or girls, according to the size and distance of the drying ground. If the peat to be 

 worked lies entirely under water or has otherwise been rendered very soft or wet, it 

 must be thrown up to dry a little ; in the same way it has to be wetted if too dry. 

 As a rule, it may be operated upon just as dug from the bog after removal of the top 

 layer, but if the quality varies much at different depths it is desirable to mix the same 

 in digging and throwing out. Two men dig the peat and cart it to the machine, which 

 is placed as close as possible ; a third feeds the machine, taking care to keep it con- 

 stantly full, in order to facilitate the even discharge of the streams of moulded peat. 

 If the latter cannot be moved forward on the wetted table without getting crushed 

 and squeezed, then the pulp is too wet; if it crumbles, it is too dry; if the stream 

 be uneven or incomplete, the mould is clogged, and may be opened at once and the 

 obstruction removed. Very little practice overcomes and entirely avoids these diffi- 

 culties. A girl or a boy stands on the left-hand side from the machine of the table, 

 and cuts from the stream with a sort of wooden spade 4 inches square while holding 

 the former with the left hand a length of 10 inches, and removes the same to the end 

 of the table, from whence it is loaded on a cart by one of the remaining two or three 

 children, and wheeled to the drying ground. If there is sufficient room, the pieces are 

 simply laid side by side in a dry atmosphere. Three days suffice to air-dry the same, 

 and in two or three weeks they can be stowed into large heaps. The writer here re- 

 peats that peat having gone through this machine dries much more quickly and burns 

 with greater intensity of heat; also that the lightest and poorest stuff so worked is 

 fitted for consumption under steam-boilers. One volume of this pressed peat is equal 

 to about two of Hanover peat, or to three of ordinary cut peat, and the intensity of heat 

 developed stands in the same proportion. 



' One horse is sufficient for ten hours' work per day, the dynamometer only showing 

 80 Ibs. to 95 Ibs. on a beam 13 feet 6 inches long, according to the size of the mould and 

 the condition of the raw material, making two rounds per minute at thirty-seven paces 

 each, or a total of seventy-four paces per minute, the exertions of the animal not lying 

 so much in the intensity of the pull, but in going round in a circle, and this one can 

 do easier than another. Next to the regular speed of the horse, the production of the 

 machine depends on the size of the moulds used. No. 1 is 3J inches square, and pro- 

 duces, in 50 minutes during which the horse makes 118 rounds by exerting a pull of 

 SO Ibs. on the 13 feet 6 inches beam 1,000 pieces of peat 10 inches long, containing 

 122,500 cubic inches = 70^ cubic feet of wet peat. Absolutely dry, one of these pieces 

 weighs 1 Ib. loth. = 1 Ib. oz., or rather more, in English. No. 2 is 3| inches square, 

 delivering in one hour and five minutes, and 150 rounds of the horse, 1,000 pieces of 

 peat 10 inches long, the dynamometer snowing 85 Ibs. to 88 Ibs. on the same length of 

 beam. The bulk of wet peat thus delivered is 81f cubic feet, one piece weighing 1 Ib. 

 17 loth say 1 Ib. 84 oz., English, rather more when absolutely dry. Mould No. 3 

 is 4 inches square, and delivers in 1 hour 15 minutes, 144 rounds of the horse with a 

 pull of 92 Ibs. to 95 Ibs., the same number of pieces, viz., 1,000 also 10 inches long, 

 being 101 J cubic feet of wet peat, which weigh when quite dry 2 Ibs. oz. each piece. 

 Some cut the peat only 8 inches long, others 12 inches ; 10 inches is the best result of 

 a number of trials. He uses form No. 3. His hands have to produce 7,000 pieces per 

 day, and he pays 6 sgr. (7'2d.) per 1,000; for turning over or re-stacking, Q'6d. per 

 1,000 each time. He turns his peat over three times, and pays Qd. per 1,000 in the 

 stack, but this eztra expenditure is more than covered by the greater value of the 

 product and the saving of carriage by reason of the reduced bulk. Peat thus prepared 

 from the 1st to the 20th May proved excellent fuel in the writer's steam distillery." 



PECTIC ACID (Acid pectique, Fr. ; Gallerlsaure, Ger.), so named on account of 

 its gelatinizing property, (from TTIJTUO, coaguluni), exists in a vast number of vegetables. 

 The easiest way of preparing it, is to grate the roots of carrots into a pulp, to express 

 their juice, to wash the marc with rain or distilled water, and to squeeze it well ; 50 

 parts of the marc are next to be diffused through 300 of rain-water, adding by slow 

 degrees a solution of one part of pure potash, or two of bicarbonate. This mixture 

 is to bo heated, so as to bo made to boil for about a quarter of an hour, and is then to 

 be thrown boiling-hot upon a filter-cloth. It is known to have been well enough 

 boiled when a sample of the filtered liquor becomes gelatinous by neutralising it with 

 an acid. This liquor contains pectate of potash, in addition to other matters extracted 



