Sept. 1 1865.] THE TECHNOLOGIST. 
THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPRESSED PEAT. /I 
had time to become manifest, for it was not until the clo-e of last 
summer that the new ruads were thrown entirely open for traffic ; but 
already inns and incipient farms, dotting the wayside at almost every 
turn, mark the first growth of settlement, and begin to break the soli- 
tude of the journey. With new roads, a new day has dawned upon 
British Columbia. Already the foundations of its ultimate prosperity 
seem to have been securely laid, and it only remains to hope that in 
days to come its rich harvests may be participated in by British subjects 
much more largely than they are at present. 
From its advantages of geographical position, its vast mineral 
wealth, its salubrious climate, and valuable natural products, it seems 
but fair to anticipate that, under good government, and by a process of 
gradual development, British Columbia will ere long take rank as not 
the least important of the colonies of the crown. 
THE MANUFACTURE OF COMPRESSED PEAT* 
BY C. HODGSON. 
The author commenced by stating that improvements in the ordinary 
mode of preparing peat fuel have attracted much attention for many 
years, the chief difficulty lying in drying the wet turf taken from the bog. 
A system which had in it all the elements of success was proposed by 
Groynell and others about fifteen years ago. Their idea was to tut turf 
in the ordinary way, and to dry it to the extent possible during the 
summer, then to grind it, and complete its dessication whilst in a state 
of powder, and subsequently to compress it in a machine pointed with 
a reciprocating ram, and several moulds capable of being brought suc- 
cessively under the ram. A beautiful sample ol hard fuel was thus 
obtained, but the quantity made was limited to samples, the machine 
being complicated. The practical difficulties which beset all early 
attempts in the manufacture of peat fuel have now, however, been 
overcome by the system of machinery at present employed at the 
Derrylea Peat Works. The system in use at these works is based on 
the principle that the drying of the peat is the main difficulty of the 
manufacture, and this is accomplished by operating continually on thin 
surfaces of disintegrated peat, instead of on compact sods or blocks, and the 
using compression only as a means to render the already prepared peat 
transportable and marketable. The plan of obtaining the peat from the 
bog by successive harrowings and scrapings forms also a part of this 
system of drying by thin surfaces. Having described the position and 
* A paper read before the Society of Mechanical Engineers. 
