766 
Peat and its Products , 
packing materials for breakable objects ; for packing and pre- 
serving perishable goods, such as fruit, vegetables, butter, eggs, 
&c. Fresh fish has been sent in summer from Trieste to Copen- 
hagen packed in mull, and arrived in good condition. In 
addition, moss peat and mull are utilised as non-conductors of 
heat in ice cellars, and between the floors and ceilings of 
houses, &c. 
Other Peat Products . — Apart from the use of peat as fuel 
and in the shape of moss litter, its employment as a raw 
material in other branches of industrial enterprise is only in its 
infancy. Amongst the attempts which are being made in this 
direction, the following may be mentioned : — 
A substance consisting of a mixture of peat dust, india-rubber, and 
sulphur is found to be an excellent material for insulating subterranean 
electric cables. 
Good porous bricks are manufactured at small expense by mixing the 
clay with peat dust. This plan has been tried, and is recommended, by a 
civil engineer in Copenhagen. 
Pure moss-peat mull, free from admixtures of grass peat or particles of 
sand, has been used for some time in the manufacture of gunpowder to 
replace charcoal. The powder made in this manner is almost smokeless, but 
has the disadvantage of easily becoming damp. 
Companies formed in the North of Germany (especially in Oldenburg) 
and in Sweden are beginning to use the elastic fibres of moss peat, carefully 
freed from dust, as a material for carpets and other coarse textile fabrics. 
A considerable amount of capital is said to have been invested in these 
enterprises. 
Peat fibre is also used as raw material in some paper-mills and manu- 
factories of celluloid. 
The chemical industries are likewise attempting to make use of this 
promising material, and gas for lighting purposes, tar, paraffin, solar oil, 
photogen, &c., have been manufactured from it. 
An Austrian industrial paper recently mentioned that matches had been 
made of peat fibre instead of 'wood, by Herr Rosenkotter, of Groningen. 
These peat matches have the advantage of greater cheapness, and burn 
better and more slowly than wooden matches, besides being tougher and less 
liable to break. 
The information that can he obtained with regard to these 
minor uses of peat is, however, extremely scanty and unreliable, 
and it appears to be too early to judge whether any of them have 
proved commercially successful. 
Netherlands. — Turf moors in the Netherlands are principally 
met with in the provinces of Friesland, Groningen. Drenthe, 
Overyssel, North Brabant, and Limburg, and are distinguished 
as low- and high-level moors, the latter only existing in North 
Brabant and Limburg, whilst the former are found in the four 
northern provinces. Low-level turf is so called from its lying 
below the normal level of the water, whilst high-level turf is 
