46 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



ing, the peat was cut into sods of uniform size, and the product 

 burned much more regularly than air-dried peat. 



MannliarcU and Koch's press} ''The principal feature" of 

 Mannhardt and Koch's press, " consists in the use of a pair of 

 large horizontal rolls covered with cloth to serve as a filter. On 

 the circumference of the roll, ribs of hoop iron are fixed obliquely 

 about 1 inch apart, which support drilled iron plates surrounded 

 by an endless band of cloth. The wet peat is torn to pieces and 

 put into tAvo hoppers, one over each roll, whence it is drawn by 

 rake rollers and laid equally upon the cloths moving with the 

 rollers; but in its course to the large rolls, it passes through a 

 series of three small rolls, fixed above each large roll, whereby it 

 is deprived of most of its water. There are thus two streams of 

 peat descending from the two hoppers and passing first through 

 a pair of small rolls, then through a pair of spiked rolls, and 

 lastly through the two large rolls, by which the remaining water 

 is pressed through the remaining filter cloth into the interior of 

 these rolls. The peat now forms a compact sheet, which is con- 

 veyed to a knife-like apparatus, which divides it transversely, and 

 then to circular cutters, which divide it longitudinally into blocks 

 of the required dimensions. The peat is thus freed from water 

 to such an extent that its further desiccation may be effected in 

 favorable weather in the course of a few days under covered airy 

 sheds, or in unfavorable weather, by artificial heat in suitable 

 apparatus." 



2 Condcrisation of air-dried peat, cold, l)y compression^ 



About 1859 a process of condensing air-dried peat was in vogue 

 in Lithuania, which consisted in disintegrating and air-drying the 

 peat by plowing and harrowing the surface of the bog, after which 

 the pulverized peat was rammed in a mold by a stamp weighing 

 about 200 pounds. This process does not seem to have been gener- 

 ally adopted and may be considered as an experiment so far as 

 tlie preparation of fuel on a large scale is concerned. 



'Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 2.31. 

 Vogel, August. Der Torf etc. p. 81. 

 2 Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 232. 



