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I need not take up your time with details of the immense 
profits which were at one time stated to be derivable from the 
commercial working of this process. Although the first 
erected set of apparatus has been taken down, and another 
put up ; yet the result of four years' labour and expense 
has not been attended with sufficient success, to bring the 
long promised products into the market. 
The successful operations for obtaining paraffine and par- 
affine oil from the boghead and other cannel coals, have, I 
believe, completely extinguished the chances of peat in these 
particulars ; whilst coal as a source of ammonia, and wood of 
acetic acid and pyroxylic spirit, prove too powerful competitors 
with regard to the remunerative production of those liquids. 
This brings me to notice the solid product obtainable from 
peat. 
3. Charcoal. — In Mr. Reece's blast furnace process, no 
charcoal is obtained, and in the Dartmoor plan of closed 
retorts, the cost of preparing charcoal is too dear. Hence, 
the necessity of seeking for some other and cheaper mode of 
carbonising peat. 
Peat may be carbonised in the same way that wood is con- 
verted into charcoal, viz. : in large heaps or mounds. Of 
course various modifications are necessary, arising from the 
difference between the materials thus carbonised. Peat char- 
coal, made in this way, is of excellent quality, and is largely 
used in Saxony and Bohemia, in metallurgical operations. 
Mode of carbonisation adopted by the " Irish Amelioration 
Society" (Mr. Jasper Rogers' patent.) Immediately the 
blocks of peat are cut from the bog, they are placed in 
exposed situations, so that the air may circulate freely around 
and through them, and assist to drive off the moisture. Thus, 
in the course of a short time, according to the state of the 
weather, the peat will have become sufficiently dry for con- 
veyance to the drying-house, where the remaining moisture 
