7 48 



DIGGING AND PKEPARATIUN OF PEAT. 



The elevator a h (fig. 320) raises the irregularly shaped pieces of 

 peat to h, where they fall into a bin c, and hence into the hori- 

 zontal macoratin*; machine, the interior of which is shown in 



fig. 32 



This is of somewhat similar construction to Schlick- 



eysen's vessel containing a moveable axle with revolving 

 knives. The peat is thus finely subdivided, uniformly mixed 

 together, and finally issues through the orifice h (fig. 327), on 

 to a plank d c, which is pushed forward on rollers. A workman 

 stands at the orifice of the machine, and cuts the issuing part 

 into turves with a sharp instrument. The elevator and macerat- 



ing cylinder are driven by a locomobile m, and they both stand 

 on a frame A li, which can be moved by means of small wheels 

 along a tramway as the digging-ground advances. The plank d 

 is taken with the turves on it to the drying-ground, and turned 

 over carefully, and then brought back to the machine. This 

 mode of preparing turves has been extensively employed both in 

 North and South Germany. [Some other methods are given by 

 Gayer.— Tr.] 



Some progress has certainly been made in the quality of 

 machine-made turf. Hausding* states that air-dried machine- 

 turf, with at most 10% of ash has jjrds the heating power of 

 sui)erior coal, so that one cwt. of machine-turf is equivalent to 

 i — t cwt. of coal, whilst ordinary turves are equivalent to only 

 ■ff — i cwt. of coal. 



* Op. cit. p. 720. 



