REPORT OP THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1903 45 



ordinary air-dried peat presents, and the principal methods em- 

 ployed may be classified as follows : (1) condensation of raw peat 

 by compression; (2) condensation of air-dried peat, cold, by com- 

 pression; (3) condensation of air-dried peat, hot, by compression; 

 (4) condensation of raw peat by pulping, molding and air-drying 

 or drying by artificial heat, with or without compression; (5) 

 coking. 



1 Condensation of raw peat 'by compression^ 



Many presses for the compression of raw peat have been con- 

 structed from time to time, but they have generally proved fail- 

 ures from an economic point of view. 



" The earliest kind of machine for compressing raw peat, that 

 is, peat as it comes wet from turbary, was very simple and con- 

 sisted of a rectangular frame fitted with a flat piston which might 

 be strongly depressed by a lever or otherwise, provision being 

 made for the escape of water from the peat during its compres- 

 sion. A patent was granted in 1839 to Lord Willoughby de 

 Eresby for a machine constructed on that principle.^ '' It is re- 

 ported that Pernitzsch compressed peat in Saxony so long ago 

 as 1821. 



SchafhdutVs press with rotary motion.^ "The first peat-com- 

 pressing machine with rotary motion was said to have been in- 

 vented by Schafhautl. Compression was effected by placing the 

 peat in frames fixed on an endless chain passing between a pair 

 of rolls, set a certain distance apart, grooved rectangularly in the 

 direction of their axes, which were horizontal and in the same 

 vertical plane." 



Compression ty rolling.^ About 1860, loose textured fibrous 

 peat was reduced to about one third its original bulk by being 

 passed through iron rolls at Neustadt in Hanover. Before roll- 



\ ' — ■ 



^ Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 230. 

 'Johnson, S. W. Peat and its Uses. p. 116. 

 •Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 230. 



Vogel, August. Der Torf etc. p. 80. 

 * Johnson, S. W. Peat and its Uses. p. 119. 



Percy, John. Metallurgy-, p. 237. 



