44 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Brosowshy's peat-cutting machine} ^' In North Prussia a peat- 

 cutting machine has been employed which has the great advantage 

 •of being able to cut and raise the peat from a depth of 20 feet or 

 more : by means of which, peat, covered by a considerable depth 

 of water, may be utilized without the expense of draining. It con- 

 sists essentially of a cutter, made like the four sides of a box, but 

 with oblique edges, which is forced down into the peat to the 

 required depth. A spadelike blade is then driven under the cutter 

 by means of levers, whereby the I'ong rectangular prism of peat is 

 cut off at the bottom, and the apparatus is then raised. The prism 

 is afterward cut up into convenient sized blocks by means of the 

 blade." 



French peat-cutting machine} A machine, having the same 

 object as that of Brosowsky, is stated to have been invented in 

 France about the middle of the 18th century by Eloi Morel. 

 Other machines are used in France but the author has been unable 

 to secure a good description of them. 



Dredging peat. In some localities where the peat is in a more 

 or less mudlike state, so that it will not hold together when dug 

 by hand or machine, dredging machines have been used. In 

 Holland the peat has been dredged in bags fastened to iron rings, 

 so that the water will drain through the bags, after which the 

 partially drained mass is laid on drying ground to become thor- 

 oughly air-dried. 



Mechanical treatment of peat.^ Common peat, when cut from 

 the bog either by hand or by machine, is so tender and easily 

 broken that it will not bear shipment to any distance. Even if 

 it had the necessary coherence, it is so bulky compared with coal, 

 that its use would compel the construction of larger and more 

 costly furnaces in case it were used for metallurgic purposes. 

 Many attempts have been made to obviate the difficulties which 



^ Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 225. 



Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal. 1865. 176 : 336. 

 * Percy. John. Metallurgy, p. 226. 

 2 Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 227-29. 



