82 
Annual Report of the 
ported the quantity of steam to exceed that of coal coke 3 times, and 
steam was got up in one half the time. The blaze was so great as 
to pass out of the furnace. This foregoing well authenticated evi¬ 
dence, is pertinent to show the value of compressed peat for rail¬ 
way fuel and all metallurgical purposes, and that the cost of me¬ 
chanically compressing peat, even to a specific gravity of 1,160, or 
72 38-100 lbs. per cubic foot, alone has precluded its general use, and 
as none of the grosser impurities were removed, its value was vari¬ 
able for smelting purposes as heretofore prepared. Taylor in his 
coal statistics says: “The history of manufacturing iron with bi¬ 
tuminous coal or coke is a striking instance of the disposition not to 
change. The English forge masters maintained with all the ener¬ 
gy of honest conviction, that peat coal could not be used in the fab¬ 
rication of iron, and treated with ridicule all who made such at¬ 
tempts. We have witnessed the triumphal results and its universal 
and successful application. So also the application of anthricite coal 
in the process of iron-making had baffled for a long series of years 
every attempt to employ it, and but a short time ago it was pro¬ 
nounced so surrounded with difficulties as to be impracticable. We 
shall show in the progress of these pages, that it is not only prac¬ 
ticable to employ peat as the fuel for fabricating iron; but that, at 
the present .moment it is absolutely in full operation on an exten¬ 
sive scale, not only in high furnaces, but in puddling, refining and 
reverbratory furnaces and forges, in fact in nearly all the processes 
of iron manufacture * * * * * * * 
Taylor, closing an extended detailed description of processes of 
preparing peat for manufacturing iron, (none of which was com¬ 
pressed by mechanical power) and in the careful analysis of the sev¬ 
eral kinds, says. “We now see it is managed with equal or even 
more facility than bituminous coal, and there are no obstacles to its 
general use, 11 France, Bohemia, Bavaria, Westphalia and Wur- 
temburg are now using peat, thus settling the question in the only 
way it ought to be, practically and succesfully. France in 1842, 
employed 59,000 men in preparing peat-fuel, at a cost of $1.75 per 
ton for gathering and stacking. The relative value of the peats 
referred to, compared with the Wisconsin peat shown in the report 
of Dr. A. A. Hayes of Boston in 1871, on samples from the farm of 
Col. W. B. Slaughter, show its inflammable part has high heating pow¬ 
er; burns freely and cleanly from*ash. Taking its inflammable com- 
