REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1903 47 



3 Condensation of air-dried peat , hot, 'by compression 

 Exter's process?- ^'Tiiis process, it is asserted, has been brought 

 to the highest degree of perfection in a large and costly establish- 

 ment between Munich and Augsburg where there is an extensive 

 range of peaty moorland known as Haspelmoor. The moor is 

 worked in rectangular plots 3000 feet long and 1500 feet broad, 

 which are pared and then flattened, so that the water may drain 

 from the center toward each of the four sides of the plot into the 

 surrounding trenches, care being taken that no depressions are 

 left in which rainwater might collect and form puddles. The 

 surface is plowed to a depth of 2 or 3 inches, and the peat so 

 turned up is disintegrated by raking it over two or three times 

 with wooden rakes. In sunny and windy weather the peat be- 

 comes so dry that in the course of two or three hours it will no 

 longer cohere by pressure, though it still retains from 30^ to 40,^ 

 of water ; and, when sufficiently dry, it is heaped together in small 

 stacks, to be ready for conveyance to magazines near the works. 

 When brought to the mill, the peat is put into a bolting machine. 

 The fine peat drops through, while the coarse, which consists of 

 lumps and pieces of w^ood, falls out at the lower end and is used 

 as fuel for raising steam. The fine material is heated to 100 

 degrees C, and pressed while hot into blocks. The press con- 

 sists essentially of a box open at both ends, of the same form and 

 area in cross-section as the largest side of a peat block and is 

 fitted with a piston which is moved horizontally by means of an 

 eccentric. When the piston is withdrawn to the fullest extent, 

 hot peat drops into a channel between the piston and the mouth 

 of the box and is pushed into the box and compressed by the for- 

 ward movement of the piston, block after block being quickly 

 formed and thrust out at the opposite end of the box." 



Jf Condensation of raw peat hy pulping, molding and air-drying 

 or drying 'by artificial "neat, tvith or without compression 

 Challeton^s process.- " Works for carrying out this process 

 were erected in 1854 by M. Challeton at Montauger near Oorbeil. 



'Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 233-36. 

 -Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 237-40. 



