REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1903 53 



as to be of little use in manufacturing. It takes fire very readily 

 and scintillates in a remarkable degree when burnt in a smith's 

 fire, but it is so tender that it can not be transported to any dis- 

 tance without being reduced to powder. On this account, it is 

 useless for blast furnaces where ordinary wood charcoal may be 

 used, as the weight of the mass pulverizes the coke and chokes 

 the fire. 



For two or three centuries, many attempts have been made to 

 char peat, and it is recorded that peat charcoal was made in 

 the Harz in 1735 and successfully applied on a large scale. The 

 earliest English patent for charring peat was granted in 1620 to 

 Sir William St John, Sir Giles Mompesson and others, giving 

 them the exclusive right " to charke or otherwise to converte 

 into charkcole " every kind of coal, peat or other " combustable 

 matter of what nature or qualetie soever the same may be, (wood 

 onelie excepted)'' for a period of 21 years, i^s no method of 

 charring is specified, it is to be presumed that it was proposed to 

 treat the peat in the same manner as wood when it is charred. 

 About 1727 a patent was granted to William Fallowfield for the 

 use of charred peat in the manufacture of iron. 



Many experiments have been made in charring peat with the 

 method commonly used for charring wood, but the result has 

 always been a very friable coke. 



Charring in open kilns?- About the middle of the 18th century, 

 kilns of peculiar type were in use at the turbaries of Villeroi for 

 making peat charcoal. " They were in the form of an inverted 

 cone, on one side of which was a door about 5 feet high and 2 

 feet wide. Near the base of the cone an arched floor with holes 

 in it for passage of air supported the peat, while underneath the 

 little fire necessary for igniting the peat was placed. When the 

 peat is sufficiently lighted, the opening communicating with the 

 external air is closed, and the doorway built up with brick." 

 After the kiln had been filled with peat, it was covered with 

 earth and left to burn; gradually the whole mass would sink 



^ Percy, John. Metallurgy, p. 501. 



