PEAT AND ITS USES 39 



his visit to Ireland, he usually does so by buying a 

 trinket carved out of the black bog oak that has been 

 lying for centuries preserved from the decaying 

 influences of climate beneath the covering of peat. 



While peat is used in this crudely simple way as a 

 fuel in Ireland and elsewhere, there have been many 

 attempts made to employ it on a larger scale. One 

 reads of press peat, pressed peat, condensed peat, 

 machine -formed peat, wet-process peat, briquetted 

 peat, all of which represent the attempts of the 

 inventor to spread the utilization of peat as a fuel 

 over areas remote from the peat bog, but their efforts 

 have met with little success. Peat has a low heating 

 value ; special grates are required for its consumption, 

 and the relatively large quantity of ash makes the 

 handling of it a difficult matter. The experiment 

 has even been made of powdering the peat and 

 employing it in special powder burners, and it seems 

 that it is only because of the low price of coal that in 

 this form it has not become really popular. The 

 process of briquetting peat again is one that has 

 given good prospects of success. To prepare the 

 briquette the raw peat is treated and pressed. As a 

 result of the treatment a black heavy compact sub- 

 stance results that is pleasant to handle, and that 

 has a fuel value comparable with that of ordinary 

 bituminous coal. The fact remains, however, that 

 so far the briquettes have not come into public 

 favour. In peat coke one meets with another of 

 the attempts made to establish peat as a common 

 household fuel. On paper the scheme seems promis- 

 ing enough. By-products similar to those obtained 



