'•p.' m/ - aND ITS WI.KerrV.C, Jttrara, N. H. Cornell University Library TN 837.K41 Peat and its products; an illustrated tre 3 1924 003 625 641 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003625641 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS SECTION OF CHAT A0S5, NEAR I ASTLEY STATION. " '^AffDY CLAY' OR LOAM " r..rr' [ii~ -— '— — — I — 1 --:f "'"' ■ ' "■ "■ f^- BOULDER &'■ CLAY IV/r/f SANDY SEAMS C^-^^-JG^ < o Q 03 m/vr BOULDEffS AT _ WE BASE The Peat was 17-0 thick, but it shrunfi to 9 feet. At the base of the Peat there was much timber —Oali Trees, Aider, Hazei, arid Birch- and many Hazei Nuts. The roots were in the 1-6 Loam, above the Bouider Clay. An area of about 25 yards square had been excavated by H M. Ormerod, Esq., the agent for Col. Ross, atari and Ciay was removed from the base and placed on the surface of the iHoss, thus forming good iand. About 200 cubic feet of timber was found in this excavation, showing that a forest grew there before the moss. The floor is of soft red Rocli. /YEW RED SAA/DSTOA/E This section is copied from my Note Booi< of 1866, and was the subject of a note published in the Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Phiiosophical Society of that year. W. BROCKBANK. PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS AN ILLUSTRATED TREATISE ON PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS AS A NATIONAL SOURCE OF WEALTH BY W. A. KERR, V.C. GLASGOW BEGG, KENNEDY & ELDER, 33 Hope Street 1905 CONTENTS. PREFACE. " The Sombre Genius of the Moor," vii CHAPTER I. What is Peat ? - 1 CHAPTER II. Peat as an Article of Fuel, 16 CHAPTER III. Peat Charcoal or Peat Coal, 49 CHAPTER IV. Gas from Peat, - - - - - - - 72 CHAPTER V. Electricity from Peat, 106 CHAPTER VI. How to use Peat Fuel, - - 119 CHAPTER VII. Peat Moss Litter, - - 137 CHAPTER VIII. Peat as a Manure, - - - 156 CHAPTER IX. Peat Bricks and Earthenware, - - - - 183 vi CONTENTS PAOB CHAPTEB X. The Germ-Destroying Action of Peat-Moss Litter and Peat- Dust treated with Acids, - - - - 210 CHAPTEE XL Health-Giving Properties of Peat, - - 223 CHAPTEE XIL Eeclamation of Bogs and Moors, - - - - 231 CHAPTEE XIIL How to Work a Peat Bog, - - 246 APPENDICES. L The Distillation of Peat, - 272 II. Utilization of the Peat Bogs of Ireland for the Generation and Distribution of Electrical Energy, - - 289 III. State Aid to Industry (including "Gewerbe" Museums and Cottage Industries), - 300 PREFACE. "THE SOMBEE GENIUS OF THE MOOE." The aim of this work is to direct general attention to the economy of Peat as a substitute of coal and for the develop- ment of its numerous bye-products. The subject, now that the Irish land difficulties have been relieved by legislation, and that we have lately had bitter experience of a coal famine, is ripe for serious discussion and practical consideration. In directing the attention of the community at large to the various uses and products of this source of wealth lying at our doors, together with the methods of preparation and manufacture, care has been taken to quote every reliable authority to whom we have had access. Hitherto, save in the cot of the crofter or in the cabin of the " rug-headed kern," Peat has been little known as a fuel in these Islands, though its value on the Continent has long been appreciated and its production fostered by various States. Abroad, throughout the German Empire, in many parts of France, in Austria, Russia, Holland, and throughout the length and breadth of Scandinavia, it is regarded as one of the most precious national assets, adding materially to the general national resources in its application to manufactures gener- ally and to domestic uses. In July, 1892, the Premier, the late Lord Salisbury, addressed a circular to Her Majesty's Representatives at the Hague, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Paris requesting them to obtain information with regard to the manufacture of fuel, moss-litter, and other viii PEEFACE products of Peat. This information, in due course, was pub- lished in a Blue Book, Commercial No. 2, of 1893. Since then, so far as official action in the important subject is concerned, the matter lay fallow till interest in its possibilities was revived by exhibits at the Cork Inter- national Exhibition, in 1902 ; and by a paper read by a gentleman from Schleswig-Holstein — Mr. Tissington Tatlow — before the Industrial Conference held in con- nection with that admirable and instructive Exhibition. Here Peat, it may be said, has hitherto been unaccountably neglected, though from time to time spasmodic misdirected efforts have been made to give it a commercial value. And yet. Peat covers about 2,831,000 acres, one seventh of Ireland's surface, calculated to contain 33,972,000,000 tons of fuel valued at £850,000,000, an enormous national treasure only requiring working, with an extended means of transit, to prove a gold mine of fabulous capacity. Scotland too, from the far North down to the Borders, possesses vast treasures of Peat, the deposits of Western Isles, being especially valuable for their bye-products ; and in England and Wales it is found in large quantities, making a grand total approaching to 6,000,000 acres. The levels known as Marshland (Yorkshire), the Isle of Axholme, and the rich land stretching away from the Thorne and Hatfield moors down through Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, were originally peat bogs, and are unsurpassed for fertility. At one time the Marshland properties changed hands at £200 an acre, and commanded a rental of four guineas. In Dumfries- shire, on the extensive Lochar bog at Racks, the Scottish Peat Industries, Limited, under the able superintendence of Mr. A. B. Lennox, have established an extensive and rapidly extending factory, which, with the vast amount and excellence of raw material, and the facilities of getting the manufactured fuel and other various bye-products, etc., on to the rail and to a port, promises to prove a source of profit to its shareholders, and a reliable and interesting object lesson of strenuous labour and intelligent enterprise. Dr. Johnson, Professor of Botany at the Royal College of "THE SOMBBE GENIUS OF THE MOOE" ix Science, Dublin, who has devoted much attention to Peat, observes in a paper, published in 1899, "while the average thickness of turf in Europe varies from 9 to 20 feet, Ireland hasbogs as much as 40 feet." Another authority, Lieutenant- General Sir R. H. Sankey, K.C.B., Royal Engineers, late Chairman of Public Works, Ireland, in an article in the Nineteenth Century, entitled "A future for Irish Bogs," says — " We could thus count on having a heating power in the bogs for steam raising, to give us a constant output of 300,000 horse power for 412 consecutive years." This writer advocates the utilization of this vast amount of carbon which nature has stored up in the Irish turbaries for the generation, in situ, of electric energy, which, through the application ofmodern scientific principles, can be transmitted and made available at an extremely low price in all parts of the country, and anticipates the feasibility of generating a horse power per hour for one farthing, which would allow of a unit being sold to customers at the surprising low price of a penny or a little over. " Generating Stations," he adds, " permanent or semi-permanent, may be set up at any place where the conditions prove to be most convenient." It is true that, to some extent, we have wrested the Moss-litter industry from the Dutch and Germans, but this, to a very limited extent, touches only the surface of the deposits, viz., the light fibrous Peat, and does not utilize the dense black material which it covers. On the Conti- nent, where all the Northern countries, and some of the Southern — Austria-Hungary and Italy — are interested in the development of their peat-moors and bogs, there are journals devoted exclusively to this interest. Mr. Tatlow, who has personally visited most of the moors and centres of manufac- ture, and who is thoroughly versed in the present position of the industry on the Continent, states that a band of scien- tific and practical men works incessantly on the question of the utilization of the bogs ; that there are several experimen- tal stations, the results of the operations of which are duly published for general information ; and that country societies are in existence whose duty it is to keep themselves en rap- X PEEFACE port with kindred institutions, at home and abroad, so that, through these widely circulating mediums, the proprietor of a small turf factory in Bohemia is kept posted up in what is going on in far-distant Sweden. Courses are held for instruction, the Governments afford State aid, there are public subscriptions devoted to the advancement of the utilization of Peat, and the experiments and observations of specialists become public property. A grant in aid of £3500 a year is made by the Swedish Government, and there are three thousand members of a Society, established for the development of the various peat industries, who con- tribute a small sum each per annum. What in this direction do we ? Nil !^ Beyond an occasional article in a magazine, a short paragraph in some journal, or an advertisement concerning Peat-moss litter, of Peat we hear and see nothing, and most of our people are utterly ignorant of its value. Well may it be said, that " one is amazed and dejected to think what they (the Dutch) have done, and what Ireland has left undone in the utilization of her bogs." And in considering the question of this, one of the many melancholy instances of Ireland's neglected opportunities, the neglect becomes accentuated, for the climatic conditions are alike and both countries lack a supply of soft coal. It is the duty of the lately constituted Department of Agriculture for Ireland, charged with the resuscitation and promotion of industry and technical instruction, to second the efforts of capitalists and others who, on business or philanthropic lines, may venture to follow the Continental examples, and thus help the people along this industrial road — a road which we confidently believe leads to great wealth. At present, so far as the peat industry as a National source of wealth is concerned, it apparently is discouraging the ^NoTE. — The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland has lately commenced some limited experiments in the Co. Cavan to test the adaptability of machinery to " turf" manufacture. The plant is confined to cutting and lifting the peat from the bog, and to masticating and shaping machines. This is merely playing with the industry, and is unworthy of a Government Department whose bounden duty is to foster this industry by every means in its power. "THE SOMBRE GENIUS OF THE MOOR" xi introduction of capital. Ireland's economic life will do more towards peace, contentment, and plenty, than all the parliamentary sops the long-suifering "predominant partner " may be coaxed or browbeaten into offering her. Political considerations and the dignity of productive labour apart, the capitalist, from a financial point of view, will in this industry find a certain and handsome return on his vested capital. It gives promise of success rarely offered or realised in so early a stage of any legitimate enterprise. The Shares of Richardson's Moss-Litter Company Limited are quoted at 300 per cent, premium. Another Anglo-Dutch Moss Litter Company, weighed down by a huge capital, earns 10 per cent, dividends, and its off-shoot, a mere distributory con- cern, gives equally good returns. Life in Northern latitudes implies the free use of fuel. We, as a nation, are in abject dependence on coal-owners, the miners, and the coal factors, for the right to live. As we write we read of closed factories, dislocation of railway trafiic, and locomotives stand idle, owing to the great Westphalian coal-strike. The old adage of the advantage of having several strings to one's bow is surely applicable to this all-important question of fuel. If still another material, comparable in efficiency and in price to coal, can be brought into commercial competition with it, the situa- tion must be decidedly improved. If, too, the winning and preparation of such a practically illimitable natural product would create an entirely new field of home industry of the first magnitude, employing capital and labour on a very extensive scale, utilizing resources now almost, in these British Isles, entirely dormant, there would be every reason, from the public and private point of view, for welcoming the introduction of a new fuel such as we find in peat, whether in the form of gas or as machined or briquetted blocks of varied shape, size and weight. Second only to its varied applications as a heat producer is the use of Peat as a fertilizer. Apart from the well- established value of its ashes and "mull," its antiseptic, deodorant qualities and powers of absorption and retention. xii PREFACE suggest its employment in the manufacture of various arti- ficial manures, usefal alike in agriculture and horticulture. It overcomes the hitherto insurmountable difficulty of disposing of night-soil, and of the malodorous wastes of breweries, distilleries, tan-yards, dye and chemical works, and slaughter-houses, giving their residuals a commercial value, relieving the owners of these often poisonous effluents of much anxiety, obviating the pollution of rivers and streams, and placing at the disposal of the farmer, the market gardener, and the horticulturist, a wide range of powerful, cleanly, plant food, which can be manufactured and placed on the market at a low yet remunerative rate. That there have been failures in the past cannot be denied. But these are easily explained away. The promoters of the various schemes possessed no technical knowledge of the peculiar nature of the material they proposed to handle, and were consequently groping in the dark. Peat is a curious substance, possessing peculiarities of structure and ingredients differing widely from any other natural product. Though allied to coal, lignite, petroleum, and wood, it differs from all its relatives, having the characteristics of india- rubber or gutta-percha, being, till disintegrated, remarkably retentive of air and water, and refusing, till treated in a peculiar manner, to be converted into a homogeneous solid. The common aim of the numerous processes, machines, and devices was compression, without any consideration for the peculiarities and chemistry of the raw material. In some cases, notably that of the Irish Peat Company established at Athy, Co. Kildare, in 1854, over-capitalization coupled with an enormous outlay for buildings and plant, and a bad selection of locality and material, brought the fabric to the ground. The inefficient machinery and buildings cost £60,000, whereas to-day a well-equipped distillation factory, capable of treating an equal amount of Peat and of obtaining the best results, need not cost more than £6000. If one or more of the multi-millionaires who so gene- rously lavish their vast piles of dollars on libraries, often donating large sums where these institutions are neither "THE SOMBRE GENIUS OF THE MOOR" xiii wanted nor acceptable, could be prevailed upon to divert the golden stream towards the establishment of technical instruction, they would for ever settle the Irish Land question, relegate the venomous agitator to the limbo of the past and forgotten, and a happy and prosperous Ireland would for all time applaud their philanthropic wisdom and statesmanship. Irish Land will then become a marketable commodity, agrarian outrage will no longer sully the good name of the peasantry, and the sister isle will be rescued from financial chaos. What she wants are industrial schools, workshops for the training of handicrafts, scientific laboratories, technological collections, co-operationand capital. To this end the State might, nay should, contribute a hand- some yearly dole. What, during the last two or three decades, has been effected in Austria and Hungary, in relation to small rural and urban industries and trades, can surely be put into practice in Ireland. The country is " waking up " is the assurance of every Celt, and will cheerfully respond to any efforts to aid her in seizing the present opportunity. Lord Iveagh, Mr. W. J. Pirrie, and other patriots, are bent on developing her commerce by means of much needed facilities for transport ; and Mr. George Wyndham is determined to fill her fields with lusty labourers. The nation is starting on a path of material progress. An industrial revival is on foot. One seventh of the whole Island is under Peat, and Peat properly handled is gold. The reader's particular attention is drawn to the valuable paper on The .Utilization of the Peat Bogs of Ireland for the Generation and distribution of Electrical Energy, by Lieutenant-General Sir R. H. Sankey, K.C.B., RE. (retired), read before the Industrial Conference at the Cork Inter- national Exhibition, 1902. Further, we desire to draw attention as an object-lesson to the economic conditions now rapidly growing up in Austria-Hungary, set forth in an equally valuable paper read on the same occasion by Dr. William Exner, K.K.,Sections-chef, Technologisches Gewarbe Museum, Vienna, on State Aid to Industries (including " Qewerbe " Museums and Cottage Industries). Dr. Paul xiv PEEFACE Dvorkovitz's paper is a learned technical contribution to the geology, botany, and chemistry of Peat, and also to the possibilities of turning it to profitable account by a new, continuous, and economical system of low distillation. Coming from the President of the Petroleum Institute, one who has had long and varied experience of fuel in what- ever shape, and who brings to the investigation a profound practical chemical knowledge, these researches are of special value. No apology is needed for the reproduction of this trio of admirable contributions. A careful perusal of all the papers read before the Industrial Conference at Cork, and published by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland, is recommended. We are much indebted to Mr. T. H. Leavitt, of Boston, U.S.A., for his interesting compilation Facts about Peat, from which we have quoted freely. Our aim is to briefly give such facts in regard to Peat as have come under our observation, or which we have been able to collect from a variety of sources, with a view to interesting the community in the development and various resources of an invaluable though homely substance, which stupid prejudice alone prevents from coming into general use. Ordinary skill and enterprise, backed by moderate capital, will suffice to demonstrate the little dreamt of value of our Peat bogs. Apart from Peat per se and its numerous applications, the value of reclaimed Peat bog, and the successful results attending judiciously conducted operations in that direction by Urban Councils, has been fully demonstrated by the enterprising Corporation of Manchester on Chat Moss, which from an unproductive waste has been converted into a fruit- ful agricultural, horticultural, and market garden area, yielding a considerable revenue to the municipal coffers. " One of the most important facts obtained is that by using peat instead of coal there is a great saving, and this may very likely assist in pushing a new Banish industry, i.e. the working of peat moors for obtaining cheap fuel, and consequently converting moorlands into good, sound, pro- ductive land " (Consular Report, 1902^. "THE SOMBRE GENIUS OF THE MOOR" xv If with no other object than to combat the evils of smoke pollution, the adoption of peat fuel, or peat in combination with anthracite coal, should be general in our cities and towns. It is declared by the Coal Smoke Abatement Society that the Bell Harry Tower of Canterbury Cathedral is suffering badly from surface decay owing to the action in the atmosphere of the products of imperfect combus- tion of coal. If this is the case at Canterbury, what is the condition of Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and other historic buildings in the Metropolis ? Very much worse, according to experts. Tons of Epsom salts. Pro- fessor Church says, might be taken off Westminster Abbey. Describing the effects of the coal smoke, another authority said : " Each atom of soot is a sponge absorbing and holding the acid gases, and transferring them liquefied to the surface of stone or brick. But sulphuric acid is the active agent. This acting on the magnesian limestone much used in the Houses of Parliament, for instance, forms sulphate of lime and sulphate of magnesia, or in other words Epsom salts. If there was no soot the acid gases freed on the combustion of coal would be carried away by the wind." The Hon. Rollo Russell estimates the loss to the Metropolis by the coal smoke nuisance at £5,000,000 a year. In this estimate he takes into consideration the decay which is produced in buildings, the extra cleaning involved by the soot deposits, the depreciation of fabrics and treasures of arts, and the de- preciation of shopkeepers' stocks. By those who are trying to get a cleaner London the contention is made that the constant repairing which is always going on at St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and other large buildings is due for the most part to the action of the smoke. The secretary of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society states that while a great deal has been effected in the matter of preventing the emission of smoke from factories, little can be done effectually to purge the Metropolis xvi PEEFACE from smoke evils until the ordinary household grates and kitchen chimneys are constructed with a view to fuel economy and smoke abatement. The results of exhaustive tests made by the society have proved that smoke pol- lution from domestic fires can be reduced to a minimum if proper grates and other appliances be adopted. When the King, standing in St. Patrick's Hall, crowded with the representatives of all the learned, scientific, philan- thropic, and other bodies of Ireland, in reply to numerous loyal deputations uttered these words : " / rejoice to hear of a newly -awakened spirit of hope and enterprise among my Irish people which is full of promise for the future. It will he a source of profound happiness to me if my reign should he co-incident with a new era of social peace and of industrial and commercial progress vn every part of Ireland," His Majesty voiced the fervent hope of every one of his subjects. To her bounteous but now seriously exhausted coal measures Great Britain owes much of her wealth and position, and though Ireland can boast of no such mineral wealth she, in her vast acres of excellent Peat, possesses a fuel supply which it has been calculated will, if worked on a sound business basis, meet all her wants as to power, illumination, and heating for centuries. The peat question has been fully and satisfactorily solved in the Netherlands, and also to a large extent in Russia, Germany, Scandinavia, and in Canada. Holland, always the pioneer of this industry, has turned her bogs to good account, deriving from them a cheap fuel for her own con- sumption, and providing Great Britain and France, as well as the United States, with a never-ceasing and always increasing supply of moss-litter. " When these sources of profit are exhausted she turns her cut-away bogs, owing to the careful systems of cutting and draining observed, into smiling corn-fields and vegetable gardens, or plants them with trees " (Journal of the Department of Agricultv/re and Technical Instruction, Ireland). W. A. K. CHAPTER I. WHAT IS PEAT? Peat is a spongy vegetable substance, composed generally of mosses and aquatic plants in different stages of decom- position. More than one genus is present, the varieties diflFering with the zone in which it is found, that called Sphagnum being most common in European bogs. The vegetation in these bogs consists mainly, together with various grasses and heather, of Eriophorum, Calluna vulgaris, Erica tetralix, Andomeda, Ledum, Empetrum, Vaccinium, and the moss Sphagnum cymbifolium. All these plants help in forming peat, but in European bogs Sphagnum palustre largely prevails. Fallen and decayed timber, ferns, bracken, rushes, reeds, and other plants, of a bygone age, are also found together, proving the antiquity, in some instances, of these morasses. The decomposed remains of these plants, acted upon by the atmosphere, form a dark, friable soil overlying a layer of different depths, of a light Vandyke warm-tinted bright yellow, dirty white, but never black fibrous material known as "red" peat, this again being suc- ceeded by a strata, also of varying thickness, of dark- coloured, decomposed material overlying thebottomor hardly- compressed " stone peat," which, when cut, shows few traces of fibrous matter, is dense and fine in the grain, of a cheesy substance, and of a dark sepia hue. In the " older peat " no living animal exists. It is in the progressive stage from a vegetable substance to a mineral coal. Whole forests of oak, fir, ash, birch, yew, willow, etc., have been overwhelmed 2 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS bj' the steady, resistless growth of these aquatic plants, and are found in all positions at the bottom, or in the middle of the bogs. Much of the value of peat, as a fuel, depends upon the amount of turpentine it contains, and wherever remains of resinous trees, such as pine, abound the fuel is " fatter," because the resin is converted into wood tar. We find this in some parts of Scotland, where the fir- wood from the bogs was used by the country folk for candles ; also in the case of the so-called " tallow-peat " in the neighbourhood of Lough Neagh in the north of Ireland, where the Pinis Sylvestris largely predominates. The peat on the famous and broad moor of Rannoch, the great flat morass, " open, silent, and solitary," occupying the table-land of Scotland, twenty square miles in extent, resting on granite, is especi- ally bituminous. This great level, intersected by the brawling perennial Gauer Water, holds sufficient " creashy " peat, charged with resin and oils, to generate electric pro- ducer, and illuminating and heating gas to meet the wants of many industries for a long term of years. In this dreary waste we find, submerged, the roots and stumps of giant firs in a perfect state of preservation. It is not so very many years since these roots were the favourite means of illumi- nation in the sheilings of this part of the Highlands. In a record of the district we find it stated that these roots were at one time the sole source of artificial light obtain- able. We know of an old shepherd and his wife who used to live in a hut towards Kingshouse, on the western verge of Rannoch Moor, who unwillingly abandoned the use of this primitive lamp, in favour of "paraffin, only about five years ago. When he had gathered his flock into the fold, the shepherd would return to his low thatch-covered shelling with an armful of the roots, to be dried before the great peat fire for a night. In the morning he would break them into small pieces, about the size of a finger, and in the dark winter evenings it was the duty of the old man to keep one of the little torches flaring while his aged wife sat spinning at her wheel in the " ingle-neuk." The method of burning the roots was curious. From the crook in the WHAT IS PEAT? 3 chimney hung an iron instrument, like the "girdle" on which oat-cakes are baked, but instead of presenting to the fire a flat surface, the " girdle " was ribbed with bars like a gridiron. One of the small pieces of resinous fir-root was placed on these bars and blazed up in the heat of the fire, illuminating the whole hut, and as soon as the flare began to die out the old shepherd would put on another, the whirr of the spinning-wheel never ceasing. Such a spectacle as this was to be seen until quite recently in hundreds of sheilings around the moor. The West Highland' Railway virtually floats over this moor, which is 1000 feet above sea level. It is built upon fascines of brushwood, laid in thick layers across trenches, and this elastic formation, preserved by the bituminous peat, never decays. On the moor of Caithness similar conditions obtained. In these peats the acidity is peculiarly strong, and much of the bottom peat is akin to the solid, tenacious, and heavy " haJcen peat," which is known in Ireland as "mvd turf," is the " TThire-black " of Loch Neagh, the " Ince peat " of Lanca- shire, the " greasy clods " of Aberdeenshire, " la houile de Kilkenny" of Brocbant, the "Bears' Grease" of the Lincolnshire fens, and which is also found in great quantities in the Western Isles, and is closely allied to surturbrandt or Bovey coal, or what Waller terms " vege- tabile fossile hituminoswm." Bearing upon the proposed rehabilitation of Ireland with woods of commercial value^itis worthy of note that in the bogs resinous or coniferous trees are generally found with six or seven feet of compact peat under their roots, whereas the stumps of oak are usually resting on the clay sub-soil. Commonly these remains are found standing as they grew in an erect position (see sketches in Dvorkovitz's paper) furnished with all their roots. From this it appears that the conifers grew in successive layers or tiers upon ancient surface peat, which, as it died down and decomposed, became submerged in the surrounding swamp and that the hard woods grew on the original bottom of the bogs. It should be noted also that fir trees preponderate where sand sub-soil prevails, the oak taking the place of the 4 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS resinous timber where clay forms the pan. Professor Lyall in his Principles of Geology says : " It is a curious and well ascertained fact that many of the mosses (bogs) of the North of Europe occupy the places of immense forests of pine and oak, which have, many of them, disappeared within the historical era. Such changes are brought about by the fall of the trees, and the stagnation of the water caused by their trunks and branches obstructing the free drainage of the atmospheric waters, thus giving rise to a marsh. In a warm climate such decayed timber could immediately be removed by insects or by putrefaction, but in the cold temperature now prevailing in our latitudes many examples are recorded of marshes originating in this source. Thus, in Mar Forest in Aberdeenshire, large trunks of Scotch fir, which had fallen from age and decay, were soon immured in peat partly formed out of the perishing leaves aad branches and in part from the growth of other plants." We learn also that the overthrow of a forest by a storm about the middle of the seventeenth century gave rise to a peat moss near Loch Broom, in Ross-shire, N.B., whence, in less than half-a-century from the fall of the trees, the inhabitants dug peat. Dr Walker mentions a similar change when in the year 1756 the whole wood of Drumlanrig was overset by the wind. Such events explain the occurrence, both in Britain and on the Continent, of mosses, where trees are all broken within two or three feet of the original surface, and where their trunks all lie in the same direction. Nothing is more common than the occurrence of buried trees at the bottom of Irish peat-mosses, as also in most of those in England, France, and Holland and Scandinavia ; and they have been so often observed with part of their trunks stand- ing erect, and with their roots fixed to the sub-soil, that no doubt can be entertained of their having grown on the spot. They consist for the most part of the fir, the oak, and the birch. Where the sub- soil is clay their remains are most abundant; where sand is the substratum fir prevails. In the marsh of Curragh, Isle of Man, vast trees are discovered standing firm WHAT IS PEAT? 5 on their roots at the depth of eighteen or twenty feet below the surface. The leaves and fruit of each species are fre- quently found immersed along with the parent trees, as, for example, the leaves and acorns of the oak, the cones and leaves of the fir, and the nuts of the hazel. The durability of pine wood, which in the Scotch peat-mosses exceeds that of the birch and oak, is due to the great quantity of turpentine it contains, and which is so abundant that the fir wood from the bogs was used by the country people, in parts of Scot- land, in place of candles. Such resinous plants, observes Dr. MacCulloch, as fir would produce a fatter coal than oak, because the resin itself is converted into bitumen. In Hatfield moss, near Doncaster, stems of pine have been found ninety feet long, and sold for masts and keels of ships ; oaks also have been discovered there above a hundred feet in length. The dimensions of an oak from this moss are given in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 275, which must have been larger than any tree now existing in the British dominions. In this same moss at Hatfield, as well as in that of Kincardine and several others, Roman roads have been found covered to a depth of eight feet by peat. All the coins, axes, arms, and utensils found in the British and French mosses are also Roman, so that a considerable portion of the European peat-bogs are evidently more ancient than the age of Julius Csesar ; nor can any vestiges of the ancient forests described by that General, belonging to the time of the great Roman way in Britain, be discovered except in the ruined trunks of trees in peat. De Luc ascertained that the sites of the aboriginal forests of Hiricinia, Semona, Ardennes, and several others, are now occupied by mosses and fens ; and that a great part of these changes have, with much probability, been attributed to the strict orders given by Severus and other Emperors to destroy all the woods in the conquered provinces. Several of the British forests, which are now mosses, were felled at different periods by order of the English Parliament because they harboured wolves or outlaws. Thus the Welsh woods were cut and burned in the reign of Edward I, as were those of Ireland 6 PEAT AND ITS PKODUCTS by Henry II., to prevent the natives from harbouring in them and harassing the English troops. It is curious to reflect that considerable tracts have, by these accidents, been permanently sterilised, and that during a period when j^ivil- isation was making great progress, large areas of Europe had, by human agency, been rendered less capable of administering to the wants of man. Dr. Rennie observes with truth that in those regions alone which the Roman eagle never reached, in the remote circles of the German Empire, in Poland and Prussia, and still more in Norway, Sweden, and the vast empire of Russia, can we see what Europe was before it yielded to the power of Rome. Desola- tion now reigns where stately forests of pine and oak once flourished, such as might now have supplied the demand of the world with timber. At the bottom of the peat mosses is sometimes found a cake or " pan," as it is termed, of oxide of iron ; and the value of bog ore is familiar to the miner- alogist and the gas manufacturer. The oak, which is so often found dyed black in peat, owes its colour to this metal. From what source the iron is derived is by no means obvious, since we cannot in all cases suppose that it has been precipitated from the waters of mineral springs. According to Fourcroy there is iron in all compact wood, and it is the cause of one-twelfth part of the weight of oak. The heaths (EricaB) which flourish on sandy ferruginous soil are said to contain more iron than any other vegetable. It has been suggested that iron, being soluble in acids, may be diffused through the whole mass of vegetables when they decay in a bog, and may by its superior gravity sink to the bottom, and be there precipitated so as to form bog-iron-ore; or, where there is a sub-soil of sand or gravel, it may cement these into ironstone or ferruginous conglomerate." Sir A. Geikie, in his well-known work, Text-Book of Geology, mentions that in 1657 an ancient pine forest, its trees being all dead and tottering to their fall, occupied a level tract of land among the Ross-shire hills. About fifteen years later every vestige of a tree had disappeared, the site being occupied by a spongy green bog into which a man WHAT IS PEAT? 7 could sink up to his arm-pits. By the end of the century it had become firm enough to yield peat fuel. Peat is not peculiar to any age or, indeed, though constantly stated to be confined to the arctic and sub-arctic temperate zones, is it restricted to any climate. Savants may term the vegetable deposits of Brazil, California, and Australia ; the "sudd" or "sood" swamps of the Bahr-al-Ghazal where the papyrus, the um-soof-reed, and the ambatch take the place of our water plants, ferns, and sphagnum mosses ; the black mud found in the jheels or swamps of Pertabghur in Oude, which the natives trace to enormous sacrifices by godly generations of the gentle Hindoo in bygone times of ghee and grain burnt to the gods in situ; or the dense black vegetable fat-land bordering the rivers of the Malay Peninsula " bastard peat "; but to all intents and purposes these beds are Peat in every sense of the word. Call them Cespites, Turba, Turbae, plain Turf, Tula, or what you will, the compound still is Peat. No mosses, it is true, are found bordering on or within the tropics, where vegetable matter is more rapidly decomposed, but nature provides substitutes. Tropical ferns and plants are found in the coal measures. An ostrich egg was found buried in thirty feet of Peat in Orange County, United States of America ; also the bones and teeth of the hippopotamus, mastodon, rhinoceros, elephant, tiger, hysena, and of other quadrupeds peculiar to the tropics, have been discovered in various peat bogs, proving that part of these " older peats " were formed when the temperate zone possessed a tropical climate. That tropical peats do not contain the same thermal properties as those of colder climes may be admitted, but judging from the products of distillation from peat obtained at Maranu, in Brazil, the components of peat wherever grown or formed appear to be the same. The "black swamp mud" of Pertabghur was tested by the locomotive superintendent of the railway at Cawnpore, who reported that " it would do very well for locomotives and could be supplied at six annas the maund." In the extensive peat bogs of America the sedges, grasses, and mosses are identical with those found in European peat bogs, viz., 8 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS seventy species of mosses, five or six species of lycopodiacese, and as many ferns, eighteen or twenty species of palm trees, reeds, and phanerogamous monocotyledonous plants. Only one species is peculiar to America. The trees, however, differ. In the " Dismal Swamp " of Virginia, a tract of about fifteen thousand acres, are found juniper, Cyprus, gum, poplar, lofty white cedars, and other valuable woods. The magnolia grows with a luxuriance unknown in these climes, some of the buried trunks measuring more than one hundred feet with- out any marked diminution of diameter. A French writer, quoted by Leavitt in support of the theory that lignite is only peat in an intermediary stage before becoming coal, instances the case of a deposit of lignite near Leipzic formed of large trunks heaped one on the other, about fourteen feet thick. This matter is entirely soft, and all the trunks are flattened, measuring in one direction scarcely half the diameter they have cross-wise. It is also entirely black, and yields an excellent fuel. It is extracted with shovels like peat, after its surface has been bared of twenty feet of sand and gravel overlying it. In Denmark, about twenty miles below Copenhagen, near the sea-shore, there is an extensive plain covered with the finest grass, and afibrding excellent pasture to large herds of cattle. By digging there they find, under one foot of humus, a bed of peat entirely composed of the bark of birch trees. This bark is six feet deep, and closely packed and flattened. It is cut out and dried in long rolls entirely devoid of earthy matter. This woody substance, nearly fluid, transformed into a very soft yellow mass formed at the bottom of these beds, is taken out of the excavations with buckets, spread on layers of straw through which the water percolates, and when drained it is beaten hard, dried, and burnt like coal. Peat-moss is formed by a process of comparatively slow growth, the time occupied in its formation depending greatly on the climate and humidity. The living moss and plants dying down on the surface are being constantly renewed thus forming an ever-increasing bed of decaying and de- cayed vegetable matter. Water, as stated above, collects, and WHAT IS PEAT? 9 the sub-soil of the depression being retentive it stagnates, and in colder climes, where there is little surface evapora- tion, a lake or tarn is formed. In tropical and sub-tropical countries, where the sun is more powerful, the aquatic plants — as seen in the Nile, on the Ganges, on the St. John's in Florida, and other rivers — being of a stronger, more rank, and quicker and closer growth — prevent excessive evaporation. Around the margins of these lakes or jheels various kinds of sedges and reeds establish themselves; others, true water plants, spring up in the beds of the stagnant reservoirs. Soon a heavy growth of these plants is established all over the surface, and year after year, according to the law of nature, these plants, dying down and reproducing them- selves, form a spongy material which, floating at first, by degrees attains a specific gravity greater than water, sinks to the bottom, and, as the superincumbent weight increases, is pressed down and consolidated. The degree of decomposi- tion which the matter has undergone usually determines the specific weight of the peat. It always contains some earthy matter according to the position of the bog relative to the soil in the surrounding region. As decomposition proceeds a degree of solidity is acquired by the mass, enabling it to suppoii a dense growth of shrubs. Generally this formation is found in moist climates and in low-lying countries where no natural drainage exists. But, though the most extensive morasses are found in level countries favourable to the organic growth, it is by no means confined to such districts. We find mountain-peat in various localities in Great Britain and Ireland as well as in Europe. Along the western coasts of Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia, bogs are found at high elevations upon undulating uplands, and even on the surface of granite rock, as is the case on Dartmoor and Rannoch. They exist high up in the Alps, the Jura, and the Vosges. The constant formation of clouds upon these elevated regions, together with the impervious- ness of the rock, favours the growth of the mosses. The process which converts the dead vegetable matter into peat is a chemical one, and the chemistry of peat is a subject 10 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS over which many experts differ. We make no pretence to chemical science. The best explanation, it appears to us, is that given many years ago by Dr. W. V. V. Eosa, of Water- town, New York. In answering the question of " What is peat ? " he says : — " Let us review for a moment all we know about wood. It will assist in following the changes which take place in one form of it — the vegetable fibre of mosses and ferns, for instance — while it is passing into peat ; most peat being the product of partially decomposed and par- tially preserved beds of mosses and ferns in swampy places. Wood, then, is a compound substance, namely, carbon — that is, coal — united variously with mineral substances, such as potash, lime, silex, together with gases, oxygen and hydrogen, and with water, etc., in the form of gums, resins, starch, sugar, and the like, in great variety. These substances, in burning, form new compounds, such as carbonic acid, creosote, naphtha, wood-vinegar, alcohol, and the like, which pass away in smoke and vapour ; and the other parts re- main as ashes. " If, however, we wish to convert the wood into charcoal the process is controlled and modified somewhat. The wood gathered in bulk is covered over thickly with earth to prevent free access of air : a very little being admitted below, sufficient and a little more, however, to consume that, portion near the air holes. A tolerably high heat is thus diffused through the pit, and the slight access of air thereby quickened in its action, soon causes new combinations to take place, and decomposes and carries off the more destructible parts, and then the draft being closed, the fire goes out, the pit cools down, and the earth being removed, the coal is ready for use. By this means, excepting just about the air holes, only parts, the more volatile and destructible constituents of the wood, are burned, are decomposed, or passed away, while the main part — the carbon and mineral part — is left unconsumed. " Now, what is understood by burning ? When we say a substance burns, it signifies usually that the substance — coal or gas wood, weeds, grass, or moss, for instance — unites WHAT IS PEAT? 11 very rapidly with oxygen, which is abundant in the air ; the substance burned being thus changed in its form, but not destroyed nor annihilated, as that, of course, would be impossible. All that existed in the wood before still continue to exist, though in other shapes ; mainly in gases, partly in mineral as in ashes. During this process, or rather by it, peat is created. If the process goes on very fast it is very hot ; or slow less hot ; and though so very slow that no heat can be perceived, the burning is in reality still going on, though to a degree too slight to cause sensation of the slightest warmth. " Metals — iron, for instance — may burn, that is, unite the same as wood or coal with oxygen. In this case but little gas is formed ; nearly the whole remaining as oxide of iron. If the oxidation is rapid, as when it is burned, that is as rust. Rust is ashes of iron. If the oxidation is rapid as when it is burned in a jar of pure oxygen, great heat and light are caused : if slow, as when iron rusts in damp air, or under water, none is observed ; but yet the rusting of iron under water is as really a burning of the iron as when the same occurs in oxygen or at the forge with intensest heat and light. " Water, indeed, being composed in part of oxygen, and holding a little extra in solution, is a good substance (strange as it may sound) to burn things with; in some instances, better by far than air. And this is an essential part to observe in studying the formation of peat, that water is a good substance to burn things with ; that is, if you are in no hurry, if you have years to spend in burning a very little — so very slowly that an insurance policy might run out and be renewed, and out again a score of times before the job is finished. " Although water, by preventing the free contact between actively burning bodies and the air, will ' put out ' fire, that is, will stop the rapid combustion which air favours and supports, still the water does not put out that fire absolutely as chemists would define the term, but rather, in many cases, makes its continuance certain, though centuries might be 12 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS the measure of the slowness of the work. Though water will burn many things better than air (even iron, for instance, which, unless very highly heated from without, will not rust at all, that is, not burn, in dry air) still it is slower, or will not burn other substances which are easily consumed in air. And coal is just one of these. Coal will not oxidise, that is, not bum or rust or decay in even hot water. It will keep there for ever. " And now it being clear that water prevents rapid oxida- tion by excluding free access of air, and yet ensures its slow continuance to a certain stage by furnishing a little, and that it burns and converts most substances easily or surely, and stops at others, among which is coal, it may be under- stood but with little further thought how peat is formed and where it is most likely to be found. " We can see that where large quantities of woody sub- stances, such as mosses, ferns, etc., are for a long time accumulated, and remain always thoroughly soaked with water, as in many swampy localities, such places may be considered much like very slow-burning coal-pits; that they are places where mainly, by exceedingly lingering oxidation, new compounds and recompositions take place, and the more easily consumable portion of the vegetable matters there gathered, being volatilised or burned, pass off and leave the coaly portion especially unconsumed much in the same way, in principle, that it is made and left in ordinary pits, the water acting here in part as the earth covering does there, to govern and moderate the change and oxidation by preventing free access of air, yet allowing or furnishing a little; and finally, when the coal stage is reached, the bed being already coal, the oxidation, absorp- tion, and recompositions cease, and the carbon, ready for use, is preserved for centuries. "When wood or vegetable fibre dies, and remains in places freely exposed to air and sun, it is soon almost wholly decomposed, passing away in gases mainly, as has been mentioned, and but very little of it remains. If, how- ever, in a cold climate, and other circumstances being WHAT IS PEAT? 13 favourable, it falls in large amount into places always thoroughly wet, then the decomposition is only partial, and the most of the carbon remains." Outside the United Kingdom in Greater Britain vast and valuable deposits of peat are found. In Canada large areas, often resting on shell-marl, nearly pure carbonate of lime, present themselves in various districts. At forty feet, in one instance, bottom has not been found. In the Island of Anticosti there is one bed covering a surface of over one hundred and sixty square miles. The supply of material capable of being converted into a superior fuel is nowhere more abundant than in the Dominion. " There is no social question," says the Montreal News, "that causes more anxiety to these friends of Canada who peer into the future than the difficulties of securing a cheap fuel supply. Great suffering and privations are now endured in old settlements in con- sequence of the destruction of the forests. In the houses ot many a habitant who owns a good farm, roots are dug up, and branches gathered for fuel, which in bygone years have been rejected. Yet year by year the forest is falling back, and the price of an indispensable article of consumption rising in price." Experiments made on the Grand Trunk Railway demonstrated the fact that in heating power a ton of air-dried peat equalled five-sevenths of a ton of coal, or a cord and a quarter of wood. In addition to the tests as to its qualifications for steam-raising, it was applied to smelting purposes, and the castings were reported to excel in tough- ness and quality of chill any specimens previously produced. In Canada, where winter reigns for six months in the year, a cheap method of generating warmth is absolutely necessary to existence. Peat graved from a bog drained by the Lacolle River, south of the St. Lawrence, dark coloured, fine grained and compact, with a specific gravity considerably over that of water, yields only 3'53 per cent, of ash from the bottom of the bog, and 4-6 per cent, from that on the surface. It is remarkable for its freedom from earthly matter. In Newfoundland and Nova Scotia it abounds. The fogs of the banks of Newfoundland encourage the growth of the mosses. 14 PEAT AND ITS PKODUCTS At the bottom of these bogs the substance closely resembles ordinary bituminous coal. On the North- West arm of the River of Inhabitants (Nova Scotia) appears, under twenty feet of boulder clay, a hard bed of peat resting on a bed of grey clay. Pressure has rendered this peat nearly as hard as coal, though it is somewhat tougher and more earthy than good coal. It has a glossy appearance when rubbed or scratched with a knife, burns with a considerable flame, and approaches in its characteristics to the brown coal or more imperfect varieties of bituminous coal. It contains many small roots and branches, apparently of coniferous trees allied to the spruce. The Falkland Isles, destitute ot wood and coal, abound in peat. We are strongly impressed with the conviction that the important question of the Egyptian fuel supply will be solved by the conversion of the millions of acres of " sudd " into coal. Lord Cromer, that able and impressive British Pro-Consul, may yet find a friend in that obdurate obstruction of which he writes: — ■ " As to the ' sudd,' I am dying to grapple with it. I wish to have it in pieces and draw it out in bits from its mosquito- ridden, pestilential lair. I also want dredgers to dredge away the mud which I believe underlies the 'sudd.'" How can rapid progress be made when coal is at £4 a ton, and at Khartoum " black diamonds " fetch £6 a ton ? The Suakim Berber Railway lately sanctioned, the projected lines to Kassala and along the Abyssinian frontier, that to Obied, the Great Cairo and Cape Town Line, and others still in the womb of time, may yet burn "sudd" coal. With it the Soudan would immediately become self-supporting. Such a discovery — and it is within the pale of possibility — would be of far greater value than finding gold. We commend this to the serious attention of Sir Reginald Wingate, whose efibrts are beyond all praise. Wherever the main source of artificial motion may be hidden away, awaiting the ultimate development, whether in the air or in the water, or in the heat of the earth itself, matters less to the practical man than to the philosopher. The main sources from which the present generation may expect to derive practical benefit. WHAT IS PEAT? 15 and to which we look forward in the economising of our fast diminishing coal measures, are gas and electricity produced from peat and petroleum. It cannot be supposed that nature has created and is creating these enormous masses of vegetable matter for no purpose. It becomes us to consider how to produce a fuel which shall satisfactorily occupy the position of coal in manufactures, steam-raising generally, in the generation of electricity, as a producer-gas, and in the household. The comparative absence of smoke in peat and the total absence in certain varieties of all sulphurous vapours ought to be a sufficient inducement, independently of the economy effected. " The Statesman who shall effect this work of utility (the development of the peat industries of Ireland) will live with honour in her social history when names and dates of many monuments will be forgotten." — J. M'Carthy Meadows, author of The Tv/rf Industries of Ireland. CHAPTER II. PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL. Except in the form of air-dried turves, peat as an article of fuel is comparatively little known in the United Kingdom. Though many bodies not contained in coal are found in peat the elements of the two are the same. In physical appearance coal, wood, and peat are closely allied, all three being mainly composed of ligneous fibre, a com- pound of the four elements — carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal and peat, though differing in some particu- lars, are both produced by the decomposition of species of organic growth. Professor Emmons, writing on the import- ant subject, remarks — " There is one consideration which commends itself to the philanthropic of all our large cities, viz., the introduction of peat as a fuel to supply the neces- sities of the poor. It is believed that much suffering may be prevented and much comfort promoted by the use of peat in all places where fuel is expensive. We have in this homely substance of peat an invaluable article of which prejudice alone can prevent a general use." We have not experienced the bitterness of a coal famine such as lately existed in the Eastern and middle States of America, when numbers died from lack of fuel, works were closed, coal trains held up and looted, and every substitute for coal improvised, leaves and stalks of plants, saw-dust, wool, oil, and even corn being requisitioned. So desperate was the situation, and so sore the famine, that at one time it was seriously suggested that the residual products of the PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 17 entire grain crop, including corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye, should be chemically treated and compressed, by which means it was calculated that about 200,000,000 tons of arti- ficial fuel could be yearly grown and manufactured. When properly treated, scientists asserted that the calorific pro- portion would be 20 tons of the artificial fuel to 14 tons of bituminous coal. With us the price of coal at the pit mouth doubled between the years 1888 and 1900. Between the time the coal leaves the pit and it reaches the con- sumer the cost increases by leaps and bounds. Taking the best Wallsend as an example. This household fuel at the pit mouth was lately 13s. 6d. a ton, on the Tyne (shipper's price) it sold at 15s. 6d., rising to 19s 6d (factor's price in the Thames), finally being sold to the consumer at 30s. The freight by sea from the Tyne to London is 3s. 3d. a ton, to which must be added local railway haulage, 2s., making 5s. 3d. in all. Experts differ as to the date when the coal measures of these islands must be exhausted. In 1900 we produced 225,181,000 tons, valued at £121,653,000. At this rate of working the evil day cannot be far off". The days of cheap coal have gone till some potent substitute forces the middleman, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, and kindred labour combinations, to their knees. An ex- President of the Society of Engineers has given as his opinion that there are no fewer than 6,000,000 acres of peat in the country having an average of 12 feet, and capable of yielding 3500 tons per acre of dried peat, or 21 billions in all. Though this estimate may be correct as to area, it certainly very much under-estimates as to depths and contents. The average depth of the bog of Allen in^Ireland is 25 feet, and in America peat has been found at a depth of 80 feet. As the density, and consequently the weight, of peat varies with the positions in which it is found, the organic substances from which in different localities it had its origin, the character in different localities of the|atmos- phere and climate, the proportions of earthy and mineral matters which it contains, and the degree of decomposition B 18 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS to which it has been subjected, all exercising an influence on the specific gravity, this estimate of the tonnage per acre is mere guess work. One deposit differs from another in appearance, in quality, and in the uses to which it may be best economically applied. This difference may be detected by the naked eye, whether in the moss or in the morass or on the mountain, in the form of wet or air-dried turf, or when reduced to ashes. " Some," remarks Dr. Rennie, " are of a bright yellow colour, others brown or jet black ; some are composed of congeries of vegetable in an organized state, in others few or no traces of organization can be seen. Clay, sand, and shells may be detected in some, in others no mixture can be discovered. Some are soft and greasy like butter, and form a hard, brittle, tenaceous peat almost like coal ; others are loose and friable like mould. The water squeezed out of one moss is of the colour amber, of another of claret or port wine, and of a third as black as ink. In some cases the water effervesces with chalk, in others not. Sometimes it leaves a copious sediment by evaporation, which is highly inflammable ; in other cases the sediment is small and scarcely inflam- mable. Some are covered with a rich luxuriance of aquatic plants, others are utterly barren and destitute of vegetables on their surface." As peats vary so much in their thermal value it is of importance that, before any attempt be made to convert a bog into fuel, several samples, taken from varying depths and wide apart, should be carefully analyzed by a competent chemist. Pure moss (Sphagnum) peats are invariably good, those strongly impregnated with bit- uminous matter being especially valuable for generating steam, for the reproduction of gas, and for low destructive distillation. The dense compact peat represents the first step in the progressive stages from vegetable substance to mineral coal.^ "Peat is sometimes entirely converted into coal" (Dama). "I have always looked upon the peat of the old world as one of the principal sources of our coal " (Sir James Hall). The colour varies with the age and the ^This is known as Surturbrandt. PEAT AS AN AJRTICLE OF FUEL 19 progress of decomposition. In the older thoroughly de- cayed strata no living organism exists. This " older peat " shows few traces of fibrous matters, such as roots, stems, or leaves, but it presents, when cut, a pitchy shining hue, is dense and firm in the grain, and will not float on water Some of these " Stone Peats " are improved as fuel, where there is little draught, by an admixture of the light golden- tan fibrous surface, which serves to bind it firmly together, at the same time producing a more cheery fire. So highly inflammable are some of the denser kinds of bottom peat, due no doubt to the large percentage of naphtha, paraffin, and wood tar, that the term " tallow peat " is applied to them. Such deposits have been found on the shores of Lough Neagh, Antrim ; near Ince, in Lancashire ; on the western isles of Scotland ; and in other localities. This fat peat is thought by some, with whom the wish is father to the thought, to be saturated with petroleum from bitumi- nous springs. These too sanguine and somewhat too previous elucidators argue that these surface indications point to the presence of oil fields, and claim that at last the Emerald Isle has "struck ile.'' This is a consummation devoutly to be desired, and would have a marked effect on the important fuel supply for the navy, the merchant marine, and manufactures generally ; but Dr. P. Dvorkovitz, Principal of the Petroleum Institute, ascribes the presence of petroleum in peat bogs to a chemical action which is going on in the bogs themselves, and is not by any means hopeful of finding oil in Ireland. Of peat as an article of fuel comparatively little is under- stood in England. In Ireland and Scotland, where, as turf, it has been burnt for centuries in a crude unprepared state, it, by the cottars and others, is highly esteemed for domestic uses ; but for manufacturing purposes, in the form of com- pressed briquettes or in that of coke, charcoal, or gas, it is practically unknown. Its value also may be said to be unknown, and even those who have used it in its crude state, simply cut and air-dried, do not realize the increased value it possesses when properly prepared, condensed, and 20 PEAT Aim ITS PRODUCTS solidified so as to bear carriage. Some of the turves, as graven from the bogs, have been sold in the Metropolis, and have been much appreciated by the Upper Ten Thousand, but no serious or successful attempt has been made to place this prepared fuel before the masses or the large employers of power. The community stands in need of information as to the value and economy of this compact, cleanly, smoke- less, and healthy heat giver.^ Peat can be advantageously employed in the manufacture of various grades of fuel, viz. : — (a) In its natural form, dried and pressed into briquettes, and improved by the removal of elements of low calorific value. (b) Semi-carbonized peat, i.e. peat that has been subjected to a higher temperature than that required for drying, but which is briquetted while still retaining the tar and combustible elements. (c) Fully coked or carbonized peat known as charcoal, coal, or coke. (d) As " mull " or powder, in a fine state of division, mixed with air injected into the combustion chamber by natural or forced draught. (e) In the form of gas for power, heat, or as an illuminant. By regulating the degree of carbonization the fuel for domestic purposes can be made to contain more or less combustible elements giving more or less flame and heat. Owing to its antiseptic properties it is specially suited for hospitals and kindred establishments. Let us quote from an important paper read by Dr. Dvorkovitz before the Society of Chemical Industry. "The question," he said, "presents itself, is peat advantageously convertible for industrial purposes? If we turn our attention to the development and use of peat in Europe we discover that it is used in very great quantities in diflferent industries. Already in 1856, in Germany, the Aldenburg Iron Company ' At the Falcon Inn, a few milea from Scarborough, Yorkshire, there is a peat fire which has never been ' ' out " in the memory of man. PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 21 was established, and has consumed no less than 20,000 tons of peat per year, and notwithstanding coal existed in the immediate neighbourhood, and very profitable results fol- lowed. Not far from the works of the company, in 1873, another company was established for steel manufacture by means of charcoal. Further, we find that, in 1890, 27 glass works in Germany used peat fuel, one ton of glass con- suming eight tons of peat. A Mr. Peach, at Berlin, said that one ton of ready-made bottles (1600 ordinary wine bottles) required only 2 tons of peat dried in the air ; or if we take 1000 sods of peat as equal to 3J tons, we find that one ton of bottles required 700 sods. A glass melting stove, with eight pots having a charge of 400 kilos each, consumed 4^ tons of peat a day. In Bavaria about 60,000 tons of peat are used annually as fuel for railway locomotives. " In the report prepared by the Russian Government for the Exhibition of 1893 at Chicago certain figures are given about the utilization of peat for difierent manufacturing purposes ; and we found from it that in 1890 the following industries have used peat as 'fuel, viz. : — The cotton manu- facturers have consumed 537,000 tons; sugar manufac- turers, alcohol manufacturers, confectioners, flour mills, and macaroni manufacturers, 70,000 tons ; chemical manufac- turers, 5000 tons ; candle, tallow, and leather manufacturers, 4000 tons ; wood workers, 1000 tons ; metal manufacturers, 60,000 tons; glass manufacturers, 80,000 tons; paper manufacturers, 12,000 tons ; miscellaneous manufacturers, 2000 tons — aggregating approximately 772,000 tons. In addition the Oural Mines used 60,000 tons, and the railway companies 15,000 tons, with prospectively an increased demand, proving conclusively the value of peat as fuel." From another paper entitled Peat as an Article of Fuel, published in Boston, U.S.A., we are furnished with par- ticulars "regarding six thousand million tons of peat purified and dried in the crude state, or being reduced to charcoal to two thousand six hundred and ten millions of tons, the heating power of which equals that of wood charcoal." 22 PEAT AND ITS PKODUCTS " From the figures of the most skilful mining engineers in the French Empire we find that : — Degrees of Heat. 1 Kilogram of wood charcoal yields - T'OOO 1 „ purified peat charcoal yields 7 '000 1 „ coal coke yields - 7'000 1 „ raw coal yields 5'000 1 „ raw wood yields 2'600 1 „ raw purified peat yields 4!"300 while condensed peat (charcoal ?) deprived of the excess of oxygen possesses nearly double the heating power of coal. "Again, it is proved that the general annual consumption in France of all kinds of mineral and vegetable fuels was as follows : — Wood charcoal for iron works „ other purposes Raw wood for iron works - „ other purposes Coal coke for iron works - „ other purposes Raw coal for iron works „ navigation, railroads, etc. Raw and carbonized peat actual consumption Total If peat had been used in place of these diflferent kinds of fuel it would have required 15,656,687 tons, raw and purified, to produce the same efiect, and at that rate the supply of peat in France would have sufficed the Empire for nine hundred years without importing a pound of coal, and leaving her free to export annually the seven million five hundred thousand tons of coal she raised in 1863, and free likewise from the necessity of importing eight million tons of coal as she did from England and Belgium in the same year. 667,902 tons 472,630 „ 8,405 „ 1,989,710 „ 767,622 „ 2,402,400 „ 1,108,252 „ 3,725,200 „ 359,319 „ 11,561,440 tons PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 23 "But can peat be used at less or even at the same expense as other kinds of fuel for manufacturing purposes ? Take the article of pig-iron. By the French engineers it is found that in the process of working pig-iron the cost was as follows : — 1 ton of wood charcoal was - £4 11 1 „ raw coke was - 2 16 1 „ „ coal was - 2 15 4 1 „ purified charcoal was 2 4 11 1 „ crude peat (condensed) was 1 10 This is enough to prove the economy of peat for all purposes. The general results if thus stated : ' For domestic consumption the economy — all conditions of heat being equal — would not be less than thirty per cent, of the cost of fires with wood charcoal or wood, coke, and raw coal ; and for large manufactories, which on account of the quantity they will consume annually, that calculation of economy would in certain cases be raised to sixty per cent.' " It has been proved and acknowledged that for equal bulk raw purified peat contains more heat than coke and less by one-fifth only for an equal bulk of coal of good quality." Mr M. Bute, Superintendent of the Railway Engineers for the Kingdom of Hanover, reported : — " We can, by the help of a hopper placed on a tender, carry the quantity of peat which would be necessary for a trip of one hundred and twelve English miles. No difficulty will be presented to the employment of compressed peat for ordin- ary fixed engines and eventually for steamboats." When this testimony was given the manufacture of peat briquettes was in its infancy, but even at that remote date a process employed by the General Association for Worki/ng the Peat and Metalliferous Deposits of France produced from six to fifteen hundredweight of condensed fuel to the cubic yard. Amongst the various branches of German industry which, by reason of their economy and utilization of a raw material this nation fosters and we neglect, may be 24 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS mentioned the manufacture of fuel briquettes composed of brown coal, brown coal in combination with peat, peat per se with or without a matrix or bind, and the. dust or waste of coal mines known as '' slack." Briquettes are employed principally as the domestic fuel of Berlin and other cities and districts throughout Germany; they are used also for locomotive and steam firing generally, and in various other processes of manufacture. A writer in Cassiers Magazine, evidently well informed on the subject, says : — " For all these uses they have three tangible advan- tages — they are clean and convenient to handle ; they light easily and quickly, and burn with a clear intense flame ; when made of lignite or peat they burn practically without smoke, and are withal the cheapest fuel for most purposes. It need hardly be said that the general iise of briquettes for domestic fuel in a large densely built city, as well as for generating steam in a number of electric generating plants and factories, must have a decided and beneficial influence in reducing the smoke, which in many places has become a persistent and oppressive nuisance. Berlin, although a busy manufacturing city, ranks as one of the cleanest and best kept in Europe." In 1900 there were eighty-nine factories of fuel briquettes in Germany, each producing over 100,000 tons annually. Briquettes of pure condensed peat are much appreciated on account of their safety, cleanliness, and easy transport. They, in burning, if manufactured from selected bogs, give out no phosphorous or sulphur. The principal advantages of briquettes may be summed up as follows : — Diminished freight rates, especially for water carriage. Exemption from shifting on a rolling vessel. Exemption from spontaneous combustion. Exemption from pump-clogging on board ship. Diminished insurance rates on the fuel. Diminished insurance rates on vessels carrying the briquettes. Less deterioration from age and weather. PEAT AS AN AETICLE OF FUEL 25 Convenience in checking the quantity delivered, by count or by measurement. Convenience in firing by varying the amount of each size delivered. Freedom from smoke ; of special advantage for the navy in war-time. Ability to " blend " material from difierent bogs. Ability to keep a reserve against strikes. Opportunity for advertising thereon. Guarantee of quality by trade mark impressed thereon. Increased regularity of firing. Ability to regulate the size of the output. Utilization of waste product, as culm or breeze. Preservation of size and shape in handling and shipping. Cleaner decks, etc., on board ship. Coaling less disagreeable to the crew. Grade of fuel, especially with anthracite, may be raised without a mixture of other fuel. Less ground space for storage ; they may be stacked up in vertical walls. No bunkers required, thus increasing cargo space. " While the gases exhaled from burning coal are in a closed room injurious to health, giving rise to feverishness, parched throat, headache and lassitude, peat is admittedly healthy (Diet and Hygiene)." " It is more heat giving than coal; it reduces the coal bill of the householder 50 per cent." "A fire well packed before turning in needs no attention during the night, and one can sleep in peace and safety." (Professor Huxley). The Lancet affirms it to be a valuable palliative in cases of consumption, asthma, bronchitis, and other chest complaints, and adds that its intense red mellow fire is never the cause of that lassitude and drowsiness experienced by sitters over a coal fire. To burn in an open grate in a sitting-room it is both economical and agreeable, the picture frames and other ornaments are not tarnished, there being no injurious gas. For an open fire in the sick chamber (where none but an open fire ought ever to be allowed) it is invaluable as a purifier of the air, 26 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS can be replenished noiselessly, and produces a genial and pleasant temperature. We are convinced that when the peat briquette finds its way into the establishments of Mayfair and Belgravia, " black diamonds " will no longer be admitted into the households of the West End. Of clinkers there are none, and the percentage of ash differs widely. All of it, however, is valuable as manure. The better qualities of peat yield from 7'8 to 8 per cent., whereas that of the inferior sods reach as high as 33 per cent. At a depth of four feet the deposit is generally very free from ash, and is, therefore, well adapted for gas-making, metallurgical purposes, etc. " In general," says Sir Humphrey Davy, " one hundred parts of dry peat contain from eighty to ninety-nine parts of matter destructible by fire, and the residuum consists of earth together with oxides of iron." The following analyses of twenty-four peats from various parts of Ireland, France, Germany, and Holland indicate the percentage of ash remaining after peat has been burnt: From Ash. Observer. Black firm peat - Neumunster - 2-2 Suersen J) J) Sindelfingen - 7-2 Schubler Brown peat Schavenniugen 2-3 II Old peat - Vulcare 5-58 Regnault >j - - Long 4-61 II Peat - Champ de Feu 5-35 J) Berlin - 930 Achard if Berlin - 10-20 II IJ Berlin - 11-20 It Old black peat - - Maglin - 14-40 - Eirchof Young brown peat - Maglin - 14-30 J» Peat - Eichfield 21-50 - Buchholz J) Eichfield 230 it » - Eichfield 30-50 }f jj Eichfield 330 i> Grass peat - 1-5 - Karmarsh Pitch peat 8-0 ij Young dark brown - 7-0 » PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OP FUEL 27 From. Ash. Observer. Old peat - Erzgeberge from I'O to 2-4iO - Winkler 41 kinds - Holland and ) „ , „, , . ,^^ t,t ^ , o Tj, . , , > from 4-61 to 5-580 - Mulder 6 „ iriesland j 27 „ - Bog of Allen from 1-120 to 7-898 Kane and Sullivan 3 „ Tuam, - - from 3-695 to 4-819 Ronalds 9 „ - Saxony - from 5-300 to 3-710 Wellner From the above it will be seen that in several of the German varieties no less than one-third of the entire weight consists of incombustible matter. Such varieties are, however, valuable as manure, as they contain a large quantity of phosphates and other salts which serve to enrich the soil. Professors Sir Robert Kane and Sullivan have made a careful analysis of several of the Irish peats, and have furnished the following table illustrating the variety of their composition. As a knowledge of the composition of these ashes is of importance in determining their value for agricultural purposes, this table is especially valuable and interesting: — 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Specific gravity 0-29V 0-405 0-669 0-434 0-984 1-068 0-481 0-280 0-336 0-924 Potaasa - • 0-362 1-823 0-461 0-641 0-347 0-774 1-667 8-146 0-491 0-280 Soda - 1-427 1-902 1-399 1-876 0-679 0-704 2-823 0-466 1-670 2-180 Lime - - - 26-113 36-496 40-920 22-702 45-681 40-623 20-907 8-492 33-037 30-744 Magnesia - 3-392 7-634 1-611 6-809 1-256 4-352 15-252 4-702 7-623 9.237 Alumina - 4-180 5-411 3-793 1-109 0-129 1-671 2-034 10-706 1-086 2-027 Sesquioxideoflron 11-591 16-608 15-969 29-845 15-974 10-368 17-040 15-052 13-281 19-797 Phosphoric acid - 1-461 2-571 1-406 2-019 0-188 1-114 1-447 1-557 1-438 1-290 Sulphuric acid - 12-403 14-092 14-607 16-381 44-371 24-208 23-375 13-974 20-076 20-857 Hydrochloric acid- 1-668 1-482 0-983 1-591 0-337 1-062 1-424 0-196 1-747 3-128 Silica in compounds decomposable by acids - - 0-980 3-696 1-111 0-737 1-043 6-317 6-634 12-476 2-148 3-096 Sand and silicates undecomposable by acids - 22-519 2-168 2-107 14-605 2-653 3-710 10-682 81-198 7-683 3-163 Carbonic acid - 13-695 7-761 15-040 1-470 16-120 4-981 6-721 — 8-310 3-670 99-691 100-043 99-307 99-693 99-678 99-844 100-006 98-928 99-120 99-369 The Dublin Journal of Industrial Progress also publishes the results of analysis conducted by those well-known PEAT AKD ITS PRODUCTS experts, giving the contents of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen in seven varieties of Irish peat : — Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Nitrogen. Surface, PLilipstown 58-694 6-971 32-883 1-4514 Dense peat - 60-476 6-097 32-546 •8806 Surface peat, Bog of Allen 59-920 6-614 32-207 1-2588 Dense peat 61-022 5-771 32-400 -8070 Surface peat, Twicknevin 60-102 6-723 31-288 1-8866 Surface peat, Shannon 60-018 5-875 33-152 -9545 Dense peat Shannon - 61-247 5-616 31-446 1-6904 Professor Muspratt also furnishes the following : — Carbon. Hydrogen. Oxygen. Nitrogen. Peat from Westmeath 61-040 6-670 30-470 „ „ Clare 56-630 6-330 34-480 „ „ Kildare - 51-050 6-850 39-550 „ „ Tuam 57-207 5-655 28-949 3-067 J) jj J) - 58-306 5-821 29-669 2-509 » » 3J 59-552 5-502 28-414 1-715 „ Eastern Russia - 39-084 3-788 51-088 Peat always contains some earthy matter, though, in some localities, in such quantities that its presence can only be accounted for as being brought in the form of dust by the moving air. The quality depends on the locality. On this account bogs in the vicinity of sand hills contain large quantities of undecomposed sand and silicates. The ash differs in colour from white to grey and ochre red. The economy of peat in the matter of burning out fur- naces and grates is well worth the attention of all producers of power. Peat wiU destroy no more furnaces than wood ; the fuel having little or no smoke and much gas keeps up a constant flame. Herr F. Schiikle, of Hamburg, con- verts peat into artificial coal, having a thermal value of 6250 calorics, at a cost of 10s. a ton. The salient feature of his process is, having cleaned the turf of roots and stones, to liquefy it with water and pump it through a pipe-line several miles to the works, where it is leached and converted by heat into briquettes. This appears to be a needlessly expensive operation. PEAT AS AN ABTICLE OF FUEL 29 For some time peat-fuel, for domestic purposes, mainly in the form of air-dried turves, has been meeting with a ready and appreciative sale in the Metropolis. One thousand of these blocks, weighing about 2 lbs. each, are delivered at 38s., leaving at this price a very handsome profit to the retailer. In this form the fuel is too open in texture to burn economically, or to give its full thermal value, it carries badly being too " crumbly," and as the weight is dispropor- tiopate to the bulk, is costly to carry and transport. Much better results are obtained from the compressed briquettes, which burn more slowly, give forth a more intense heat, are free from all dust or mull, and occupy less storage space. But even at the price mentioned, air-dried turves have been found very inexpensive, as one block, costing no more than a halfpenny, keeps a fire going with a comforting, mellow, heat for three or four hours without any risk of the crack- ling and shooting of red embers. Nurses, now so much in evidence, as might be expected, favour the peat fire, not only on account of its pleasant fragrance and antiseptic qualities {" valuable palliatives in cases of consumption, asthma, bron- chitis, and other chest complaints " — {Lancet), but because it saves trouble. Its value in the sick room is unquestionable. Once ignited it burns steadily without any resort to the poker until the whole be consumed. It is absolutely noise- less, a matter of no small importance to the patient, where the frequent replenishing of coals, and the still more frequent dropping of cinders or fragments of unconsumed coal, consti- tute a grievous disturbing nuisance. We know that peat being free from noxious gases leaves a pure atmosphere, and that by using it a room can be kept comfortably warm with- out poisoning the air and producing that lassitude and drow- siness experienced by sitters over a coal fire ; we know also that it does not injuriously affect picture frames or the most delicate draperies ; but, till our attention was directed to " Beauty's Queens," we had not observed its superiority over ■coal, as regards the complexion, the complexions of the women of Ireland, where it may be said to be the national •coal, being of proverbial cleanness and delicacy. " One of the 30 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS great causes," says the writer, " of the ugly skins we see in London is the all-pervading presence of smoke, and until something can be done to remove this disagreeable factor from our midst, we must continue to have very inferior com- plexions. Having said so much, we feel that the occupation of the numerous brood of Madame Rachel is gone, that the days of emotional creams for the skin, lotions, and the hundred and one complexion nostrums — mostly injurious — are over, and that in the boudoir and throughout the man- sions of the 'Upper Ten' democratic peat will reign supreme." In France, Germany, and Austria, as has already been stated, a vast amount of briquette fuel, compounded of peat with " breeze," either from soft or brown coal, is manufac- tured. The coal dust is mixed and manufactured with peat in such proportions and in such a manner that these bri- quettes, though possessing strength and solidity, burn more freely than coal, yield intense heat, and coke perfectly. This fuel is particularly well adapted for steam service, where great pressure is aimed at, for the smelting of ores, and the manufacture of gas both for power and lighting. In this direction we shall find a use for the vast heaps of coal dust lying on the banks of our colleries. By this means also will be found a market for the accumulations of an- thracite dust. It is estimated that there are 182,000,000 tons of anthracite waiting to be worked in Ireland, but which, owing mainly to the lack of means of communication and the greed of railway companies, are now lying idle. Perhaps, as advocated by Sir Richard Sankey, this mixture of mineral coal and vegetable peat may be advantageously used by the process of the Central Cyclone Company's stoker, the fuel being previously partially carbonised and made to yield its valuable bye-products. This " slack " accumulates in vast quantities at all our pit-mouths, and in no incon- siderable quantities on the wharves and in coal yards of dealers and large consumers. The amount on the banks of the pits, varying of course with the nature of the seam, is said to average full thirty per cent, of the marketable PEAT AS AN AETICLE OF FUEL 31 mineral. The only objection to this " slack," from a thermal point of view, is that it is diflBcult to handle, and costly and wasteful to transport, that the "dumping" ground occupies a large space, and that removal of the encumbrance entails expense. All these drawbacks can be overcome. So far back as 1866 this compound fuel, in briquette form, was tested on the Western Kail way, at Chester, Massachu- setts, U.S.A., and as the subject is of great importance we reproduce the engineer's report in extenso : "The fuel arrived in good order, and, by consent of the managers of the road, we were allowed to use the freight locomotive "Ehoda Island," built at Lowell in 1838, twenty-eight years ago — weight, twenty-six tons ; four feet six inch driving-wheel, sixteen inch cylinder, twenty inch stroke, two inch exhaust pipes ; a wood burner, one of the poorest on the road, and by no means adapted for burning our fuel to advantage. The first trial was made in July last, on a regular trip from Chester to Washington — the latter point being the " summit " of the road ; and the section between here and there is well known to be the most difficult portion of the whole line to traverse, having several short and some double curves, with a grade of eighty-three feet to the mile for a part of the distance, and requiring the most severe steam service for locomotives. The distance is twelve miles, and the total rise or elevation between the two stations is 950 feet. " We weighed and took on a thousand pounds of fuel, and started from the station at 3.15 p.m. with sixty pounds steam ; engineer, Theo. Dandarend, who has been on the road for ten years. Our train consisted of eleven freight cars, three of them loaded, which is equal to fourteen empty cars, a heavy train for this grade. Kail bad ; the grade on leaving the station rises for half a mile, and then descends for perhaps the same distance ; and then commences the heavy grade. " Nine minutes after starting the steam had risen up to 140, and we had to open the furnace door. Twice we pumped cold water into the boiler — once with both pumps — when the 32 PEAT AND ITS PKODUCTS steam fell ten degrees, from 130 to 120, but in five minutes was up again to 130. Had we been burning wood and used both pumps in the same manner as in this case, the steam would have run down sixty degrees to 70 — so said the engineer (driver). The furnace door was open nearly four- fifths of the time. "We made seven miles in thirty minutes, have passed the worst curves and the heaviest grade. Here our fuel gave out — steam standing at 130 — and we were obliged to commence using wood for the remaining five miles of the trip. Steam soon fell to 120, and we were unable to raise it above that point. We ran the first seven miles, by far the hardest portion of the route, in thirty minutes with our fuel; while the remaining five miles took forty-five minutes. "The facts brought out are these. It will burn in any wood burning engine, though if it is to come into common use we shall doubtless have fire-boxes especially adapted for it, which can easily be done, and a little experience will teach economy in its use. The exhaust pipes should be larger than for hard wood, perhaps three to three and a half inches. Combustion appears to be almost perfect ; there was no caking of the fuel in the fire-box, and it made but very little smoke. The heat is clear, steady, and extremely intense. " The engineer was astonished and delighted ; said it was the greatest fuel for making steam he had ever used. He thinks the half-ton, if burned in one of the large locomotives, with six-foot driving wheel, would have carried a passenger train from Chester to Pittsfield, twenty-four miles. He thinks a ton of the fuel would take a passenger train over a common grade road one hundred miles, and says a tender will carry four tons of it. If his estimates and opinions are cor- rect you will see at once that, at a cost of even ten dollars per ton for the fuel, it would cost but ten cents per mile to draw a passenger ; but if the railroad people were ito make it themselves, at your figures of first cost to produce (the cost of manufacturing the fuel, after the materials are at the mill, was less than one dollar per ton), the expense PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OP FUEL 33 would be but little over three cents per mile to run a train. " In order to a better understanding of the relative amount and cost of this fuel as compared with wood, I should state that I went over the same route with the same engine burn- ing wood. We took on 2 J cords by measurement ; were sixty-nine minutes running time between the stations ; stood at Becket fifty minutes waiting for trains to pass ; and on arriving at Washington found, by measurement, that we had consumed two cords lacking ten feet. Cost of wood for the trip, at 7-00 dol. per cord, was 13-27 dol." The machinery by which this compound fuel was produced was of a crude type, but nevertheless it turned out fifty tons a day at a cost for labour of less than one dollar per ton. Though these tests were applied on an old-time worn-out locomotive, they must be accepted as eminently satisfactory. As we have shown elsewhere, the French and German modern briquette plants work on a most extensive and economical scale, many of the systems being well adapted to this peculiar class of fuel. No matrix or binding material is necessary. By the application of heat the materials give forth their own bind, and improved machinery does the rest. The ordinary coal briquette is open to the objection that it is an exceed- ingly sticky mass, disagreeable to handle, and liable to leave dirty black marks not easily removed ; moreover, it bubbles up in burning, resolving itself into a sluggish, pasty com- pound. The combustible character of the materials used is dissimilar, causing unequal burning. The more inflammable and costly ingredients — pitch, tar, rosin, etc. — are the first to ignite and burn themselves out before the coal-dust is half consumed, the consequence being that a mass of this fine coal gradually falls through the grate bars, and becoming embedded in the bottom of the fire-box, shuts off the draft necessary to sustain combustion. Many of our mineral lines pass through extensive deposits of peat, so that the cost of freight on the raw material, always the heaviest item in manu- facture, can be reduced to a minimum. The peat mull can go to the " breeze " dumping ground, or the " slack " can be carried 34 PEAT AJSTD ITS PEODUCTS to the peat bog. Gas companies and users of gas engines will do well to give the artificial fuel a trial. In gasworks two or more qualities are generally in use — the poorer for volume, the richer for body and strength. "Numerous experiments," says Mr. Leavitt, " some on a large scale, have clearly developed the fact that peat has a very considerable value for the same purpose (the development of gas), the volume being greater, while the strength or illuminating power is believed to be above the average of coal." The quick intense heat generated by this fuel gives it a decided advantage over coal in the treatment of ores. It has been suggested that the ores and flux being crushed, should be mixed with ascertained proportions of coal and peat, and the whole manufactured together in the form of fuel wherewith to charge the furnace for smelting and desulphurising. We here give some particulars of the manufacture of peat-fuel in Schleswig-Holstein, for which we are indebted to the Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Dublin. As the bogs of this damp bleak portion of North Germany bear a striking resemblance to those of Ireland, the descrip- tion of the methods employed, though somewhat crude, are of interest. It appears that one thousand briquettes of peat can be bought in the town of Schleswig for 3s. 2d., and that peat is underselling coal in many towns of the province. Much depends upon the cost of transit. When coal is dear, Hamburg imports peat largely from Schleswig. Labour is scarce, the working months few, and the climate damp. " The manner of producing peat for use as an article of commerce in Schleswig-Holstein includes two methods — 1st, the Back Torf; and 2nd, the Press Torf. THE BACK TORE, The first mode is chiefly adopted by the peasants for the manufacture of peat for their own use, and may be described as the hand-made system. It was introduced from Holland some time prior to the year 1803 by Herr Goopmans, a gentleman sent for the purpose. The peat is ploughed up or dug with a species of hatrow. It is then, with the mud. PEAT AS AN AETICLE OF FUEL 35 dust» etc. — not a scrap being allowed to go to waste — thrown into a large shallow wooden trough called a pritsche. This pritsche is usually a little over one foot in depth, and must be of sufficient size to allow a man with one or two horses to run round in it. Water is thrown over the stuff in the pritsche. A man then, standing in the centre, drives the horse or horses round and round in a circle in the pritsche. By means of this the peat is gradually kneaded into a kind of paste or dough. The action of the atmos- phere, of course, assists. When the kneading has produced a sufficiently stiff dough, which is filled into a wooden case, divided into narrow compartments, worked up with the hands, and smoothed off with a large knife, the peats are left to dry in the open air, generally from ten to fourteen days, according to the state of the weather. During the drying stage they are turned over once or twice, and in the last stage are put into little stacks. When finished they are removed to the storehouses on the bogs. The briquettes are about half the size of those made in Ireland. It is surprising how many briquettes two men can turn out in a short time. In the case of the high dry banks of peat, the peasants in some parts of the country, before resorting to the Back- Torf system, cut sods of turf out of the upper parts of the banks by means of spades and cutters, two men generally working together. The spade, or stecher as it is called, which is about a foot long, has a sharp edge, and is raised or flanged on both sides. One man uses the stecher, with which he shapes the sod, and the second man detaches the sod from the bank with the cutter. These sods are identical in size and appearance with those made in Ireland. They are stacked in little groups of three each on the banks, and when sufficiently dried are stored. This is not considered an economical mode of making turf. THE PEESS TOEF. The second method may be divided as follows : — Process A, manufacture of Peat for Fuel ; Process B, manufacture of 36 PEAT AJSD ITS PRODUCTS Tarf-streu, or Peat-moss litter for use in stables, and Torf 'mull, or fine turf dust, made up in large packets for disin- fecting purposes, for the preserving of meat, fish, and fruit, and for the filling up of walls and ceilings, stalls, and ice- houses ; also packing material. The establishment from which the following description is taken is that at Westermoor, near Owschlag, some distance south of the town of Schleswig. It is the property of Herr C. E. Maurice, from whom the writer received every courtesy and attention. Westermoor factory, which is one of the finest of its kind in the province, is a model manufactory, and fully equipped with the most modern machinery. In addition to its local and export trade, it supplies the fuel for a large brick, tile, and drainage pipe factory alongside the bog, which is also the property of Herr Maurice. The bog is traversed by the Haupt Bahn, or main railway from Hamburg into Denmark. It is also intersected by several light tramways, the property of Herr Maurice. These tramways can be rapidly taken up and laid down through any part of the bog as necessity arises. The machinery for the manufacture of process A (peat for fuel) is moved about upon the tramway lines. That required for Process B is immovable, being in the factory. The two processes are quite distinct and separate, the machinery for each being driven by separate steam-engines. The peat-fuel machinery is driven by an ordinary engine, which, when not at work in the bog, is hired out to drive threshing- machines. The Process B machinery is worked by a stationary engine, which also drives a saw-mill, PEAT FOE FUEL. The machine used stands on a wooden platform, which runs on wheels. The tramway lines having been laid down in the direction required, the machine is moved along the lines until it arrives at a position parallel to the portion of bog about to be operated upon. The lower end of an elevator, by means of which the stuff is passed up into the mouth of the machine, is depressed until it rests upon a PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 37 beam of wood placed upon the floor of the bog. The stuff having been dug down with spades and thrown into heaps on either side of where the elevator stands, and well mixed, a number of men with large shovels then throw it in a damp state into the elevator, which passes it rapidly up and drops it into the mouth of the machine. The machine, when working at full speed, requires seven men to feed the elevator. The stuff passes from the mouth of the machine into the mincer, which is exactly on the same principle as a machine used by a cook in the kitchen for turning out mincemeat. The minced stuff is forced out of the machine lower down through a rectangular funnel on to a board, where it is cut off into requisite lengths by a cutter, which is driven by the engine. If there is no cutter, a man must be employed for the purpose. The board when covered with briquettes is rapidly removed, and another put in its place. The boards are put on a cart standing alongside, which, when full, is. driven off to the drying ground and unloaded. The cart then comes back with the empties and awaits its turn; and, of course, to prevent congestion, there must always be a cart at the machine to take off the boards. The briquettes are generally turned over twice upon the drying ground, then put up into little stacks of about eighteen or twenty each, and finally, when perfectly dry, are stacked in gigantic ricks. The briquettes are of the same size as those made by the Back-Torf process. The machine described as above is driven by an eight- horse-power engine, and, with a staff of twenty-four hands (inclusive of those at the drying ground), is capable of turning out up to 80,000 briquettes per day of eleven hours. This amount, however, is not always turned out, and the average might be taken at 65,000 per day. 38 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS THE ESTIMATED COST OF A MACHINE CAPABLE OF TURNING OUT FROM 60,000 TO 80,000 BRIQUETTES PER DAY OF 11 HOURS. Elevator, 33 feet long - - £52 10 Torf press machine - - - -52 10 Briquette cutter, which saves the labour of one man - . _ . 12 10 Moving apparatus, etc., about - 40 Total - - - - £157 10 To this, of course, must be added the cost of the steam engine and tram lines. Machines similar in principle to that just described, but driven by one or two horses, are also in use, and are very simple in construction. They are manufactured by Messrs. R. Dolberg, hereafter referred to. One of these machines driven by one horse can turn out from 8,000 to 14,000 briquettes per day. It is simply a large mincing machine, and is fed by two men, who throw the peat into the mouth of the machine. A long pole or shaft is attached to the machine by means of a pivot. A horse is harnessed to the pole, and driven round and round the machine. The pole thus revolving works the machine. The stuff passing down through the mincer is forced out of the rectangular funnel on to the boards. One man cuts off the briquettes as they come out of the funnel. The briquettes are then brought to the drying ground as already described. The price of one of these one-horse machines is £18. PRESS TORF KOHL. This is yet another process ; but which has gone out of vogue in Schleswig-Holstein. The portion of the bog to be worked is first cleared of heath, etc., and the turf is then ploughed with a light plough. The turf thus turned up is further turned over into long ridges by two men, who follow the plough. It is then brought to the mill, where, by means of the elevator, it is raised to the upper floor and drops into the tearing machine, from which it falls on to PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 39 the sieve. The fine stuff passes through the sieve and falls down into a kiln, where it is dried and passed into a stamping press. The stamper turns it into briquettes, weighing half-a-pound each, at the rate of sixty or seventy briquettes per minute. The advantage claimed for this process is that, owing to the briquettes being artificially dried, they contain a smaller percentage of water than those dried in the open air under the Press Torf system, and that consequently the heating power is much greater. This manufacture also can be carried on regardless of weather. PEAT DUST (MULL) FUEL. American experts have lately been making a series of comparative " consumption " tests between coal in bulk and pulverized coal, the results showing that "slack" or "smudge" fuel, in the matter of economy, has a 20 per cent, advantage over hand-fed furnaces. As in the case of oil fuel, the dust has to be blown into the furnace, and, no doubt, any such automatic method of firing must result not only in economy of fuel but also in the greater regularity of steam generation — a matter of greater import- ance to the attainment of economy than is generally recognised. Here again read peat for coal, for an unlimited supply of " mull " can be obtained at a comparatively infinitesimal cost. Manufacturers of moss-litter will, in this process of firing, find another use for their impalpable powder. There is said to be nothing new under the sun, and this mode of firing is certainly no novelty. Years ago Dr. Whelpley, of Boston, U.S.A., by means of a mechanical pulverizer — not comparable with our modern disintegrators and grinders, making 5000 revolutions a minute — coupled with a peculiar mode of combustion, claimed that with refuse coal ground to dust he made this powder do six times the duty of the best coal. Probably there was consider- able stretch of imagination in this claim, but, undoubtedly, a great saving was effected. Our makers of machine- stokers might advantageously turn their attention to the 40 PEAT AND ITS PKODTJCTS production of a suitable process. Powdered peat has been used with marked success for a number of years at Jon- koping, in Sweden. At a demonstration of this fuel cold fire-bars were put down in the heated furnace, and melted in five minutes. A crucible full of glass material was liquefied in four hours, twelve being the usual time with other fuel. While intense heat can be thus produced, it can be kept absolutely under control, and the tempera- ture of the furnace regulated as desired. The calorific value of the flame temperature of peat, when burnt with air, has been determined by Mr. P. Mahler in his bomb calorimeter. A comparison of the figures given below shows that the fiame of peat has a higher calorific power than all the other fuels tested except the smithy coal from Roche la Moliere and the anthracite from Commentry. Calorific Power. o ^ Water Con- densed. Water as Vapour. s s \l Calorics. Calorics. 'C. Oak wood, Lorraine 4690 4370 1865 Peat, Bohemia 5900 5590 2020 Lignite Trifail, Styria 6650 6370 1960 Flaming coal, Blanzy 8350 8060 1990 ,, Deeazeville 7840 7530 1960 Oxidised (weathered) coal, Commentry - 6380 6200 1960 Gas coal, Commentry 8410 8110 1950 ,, Bethune 8670 8380 1990 Lens- 8740 8450 2010 Cooking coal, S. Etienne - 8860 8580 2010 Smithy coal, Roche la Moliere - 8860 8600 2030 Semi-bituminous, Auzin 8660 8430 1980 Anthracitic, Commentry 8460 8290 2030 ,, Kebao, Tonkin 8530 8370 2020 ,, Creusot 8690 8480 2010 Pennsylvanian anthracite 8266 8141 2000 Ethyllo and methylic alcohol — — 1700 Amylic alcohol — — 1850 Crude American petroleum — 10400 2000 Petroleum spirit, American — 10270 1920 Refined petroleum, American - — 10280 1660 CYCLONE ]USINT£UllATOK. PEAT AS AN ARTICLE OF FUEL 41 The advantages and possibilities of burning coal or other fuel in a very fine state of division, mixed with the right proportion of air for complete combustion, have been known and appreciated for a very long time, and boilers with this system have been worked in various places from time to time, invariably with economy and success. Many have in former years, however, been abandoned in consequence of the diflBculty of obtaining a constant and uniform admixture of coal and air, regularity of feeding, and a uniform finelj'' ground coal at a reasonable cost. These difficulties have now been overcome. By the use of the Cyclone System and by continual experiments with different forms of combustion chambers, and methods of feeding, successful practical results have been obtained, and the system can be seen at work daily in London, giving results that no other system can claim, and being in itself a most simple and practical process. The system, briefly described, is to reduce any gaseous coal (those containing about 25 per cent, or more of volatile matter are most suitable) to a powder of about 100 mesh (or 10,000 holes in the square inch); to mix this with air, in the correct theoretical proportion, and pass this mixture, either by natural, ' induced, or forced draught, into the combustion chambers of the boiler or heating apparatus. All fire boxes, dead plates, etc., are removed from the boilers, and a combustion chamber of fire bricks is built to receive the coal and air in a similar manner to burning gas. The brick work attains white heat and keeps up combustion. The flame is all that is necessary — a little oily waste or wood fire and the coal catches immediately — the charge being gradually increased to the full or necessary consumption, all being regulated by dampers in the stokehole. In Paris one manufactory has employed this system on five Belville boilers for five years, using cheap small coals and obtaining full efficiency from them, while one man looks to the five boilers. A convincing illustration of the value of the efficiency and economy of this system 42 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS of filing is furnished by the Tramway Electric Co. of Brussels, where at their depot at Ixelles they have three Babcock & Wilcox's boilers, each of about 400 square metres heating surface, driving three pairs of horizontal engines. Each engine works a dynamo of 600 ampferes and 500 volts. One of these boilers has been fitted with the powdered coal system, and the latest results are so satisfactory that the company contemplate erecting a central station on this system. One boiler using 13,860 B.T. units, hand fired, gives 9"22 lbs. water evaporated per pound coal from and at 212° Fahr. (equal to 64"3 per cent, efficiency), the boiler fitted with the coal of 12,554) B.T. units gave 103 lbs. per pound coal from and at 212° Fahr., or 79"3 per cent, efficiency, and, moreover, was able to drive two engines against one from the hand- fired boiler. This, however, was its maximum duty, and it could hardly maintain this all day. The increased efficiency was thus 15 per cent., and there is a still further saving in the price of coal. The saving in coal by weight alone amounts to 11| per cent, although the cheaper quality contained 18 per cent, of ash. In a 30 feet by 8 feet Lancashire boiler now working at the Central Cyclone Coy.'s works, 345 Cable Street London, E., equally satisfactory results have been obtained. These results are given in the annexed tables. This boiler works with an economizer and a chimney only 33 feet high, the draught being obtained by a gas engine and fan at foot of the chimney in order to obtain full draught with a cold boiler. The fire bars, etc., are completely removed, and the flues lined with fire brick for about 10 feet. A bridge and baffle of special form are placed inside each flue. A feeding or stoking apparatus is fixed in front of each furnace, and occupies a space of three feet from the front plate. The mixing and feed of coal powder is worked entirely by the draught, and the hoppers containing the coal over each feeder are fed by a worm conveying the powder from the pulveriser plant. The steam pressure falls very little during the night when CYCLONE AUTOMATIC STOKEU (AS APPLIED TO FUUNACE). PEAT AS AN AETICLE OP FUEL 43 the works are shut, there often being more pressure in the morning than when left at night, this being due to the brickwork giving off its heat. The fire is started in about three minutes in the morning and steam very quickly raised, and so long as the coal is delivered regularly there is little for the stoker to do. Sight holes are provided, and from the colour of these it is easily seen if the furnace is working regularly. RESULTS OF BOILER TRIALS. Date - 2.12.02 17.4.02 21.4.02 5.4.02 8.4.02 Dec. '96 ( London. Brussbis. Beknb. Boiler - . 4 Lanes. 30x8 & Beonomiser. Baboook& Wilcox Cornish. * ^ HAND POWDEE hand POWDER Duration of trial hours 6J 2 2 6 6 9-5 95 Steam pressure, lbs. - 75 80 87 1S6 135 98 99-8 Feedtemperature,Fahr. 42 63 63 77 77 62-4 68-8 Coal burnt, lbs. - 3011 1097 1030 6600 7050 1628 1328 Coal per hour 463 648 615 1100 1176 161 140 Water evaporated, lbs. ■ 20500 8800 9100 51348 61428 12544 12923 „ per hour 3155 4400 4560 8568 10238 1385 1360 „ evaporated per lb. coal 6-88 8-02 8-83 7-78 8-69 6-87 8-1 Water evaporated from and at 212° F. - 8-23 9-62 10-6 9-23 10-3 8-21 9-73 Maximum theoretical evaporation - 10-2 14-1 13-4 14-35 13-0 13-8 13-5 Percentage of efaciency 81-37 68-3 79-0 64-3 79-3 59-7 72-21 thermal units in coal • 9853 13624 12962 13860 12569 13316 13028 Moisture ,, ,, 12-74 2-8 3-0 j 30-8 Volatile matter „ 30-06 30-2 21-6 Coke „ „ - 45-24 62-0 69-0 61-10 Ash „ „ - 11-96 6-0 16-4 18-10 Heating surface of~v boiler 930 square feet 4300 4300 368 sq. feet Heating surface of j" economiser - J 900 )] ,, Evaporation per square foot H.S. boiler - 3-39 4-73 4-9 2-0 2-38 3-59 3-7 The actual saving in the London trial is shown by the fact that on the old locomotive boiler Welsh coal at 27s. per ton had to be burnt, whereas on the Lancashire boiler coal at 12s. 6d. per ton was used. Slightly more of the latter had to be burned owing to its inferior heating qualities. The cost of grinding varies to the size of the installation 44 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS and the quantity dealt with. The larger the installation the less the cost, but Is. per ton to include depreciation, interest, power, wear and tear, labour, etc., may be con- sidered an outside figure. On the other hand, there is a considerable saving in labour from fewer stokers being employed. Taking a battery of say five boilers working day and night, burning six cwts. of coal per hour each, or thirty cwt. per hour, the requirements would be two stokers to clean out flues, start fires and watch boilers ; two men to mind the pulveriser if working day and night, or one man if sufiicient coal be ground and stowed in the hoppers for night running. The Cyclone Pulveriser Class 1 will give 18 to 20 cwt. per hour of the required powdered coal, taking 19 horse-power. The class 2 machine will give 35 to 40 cwt. per hour with 24 horse-power, and the class 3 over 60 cwt. per hour with 40 horse-power. The wearing parts of the pulveriser are the steel beater arms, and these are easily renewable. Practically the raw coal is shot into the hopper from carts, or ordinary mode of delivery, and it is never touched by hand or seen again. Having removed the ordinary furnace and fire-grate, a special front is fitted to each furnace, and, as already stated, a fire-brick arched chamber is built in the furnace. The apparatus for feeding the coal consists of a hopper for each furnace, fed by an elevator and a worm ; the hopper delivers through a special feeding apparatus to the suction of a fan, where the powdered coal is well mixed with the air, and delivered into the furnace, where it burns prac- tically like gas flame. The coal feed is regulated by a small worm conveyer driven by a pitch chain off the fan shaft, and can be very easily regulated. The quantity of air used is regulated by "hit and miss" slides into the suction fan. Messrs. Burstall & Monkhouse, 14 Old Queen Street, Westminster, made careful tests of this method of firing, and summarising generally the results of their test, reported: "We consider that, taking into consideration the good efficiency, absence of smoke, little attention ^-<*J OVCI.OXK AUTOMATU^ STOKKl! PEAT AS AN AETICLE OF FUEL 45 required, ease of regulation, and convenience of the apparatus, the system is one which is most suitable for use.'' In this peculiar case coal was used costing only 12s. per ton delivered, the cost of pulverising being Is. to Is. 2d. per ton. The cost of best Welsh coal, which would have been used in an ordinary boiler, to ensure smokelessness, would be from 24s. to 25s. per ton. A perfect combustion of coal was obtained, as was shown by the large percentage of carbonic acid in the samples of combustion collected for analyses : — Carbonic acid, . - . 15-1 Carbonic oxide, 0"0 Oxygen, - - 3-5 Nitrogen, - 81-4 1000 Under more favourable circumstances, there being a leakage of air in the brickwork of the boiler, a still better efficiency would have been obtained. Despite this consequent reduction of the temperature of the furnace gases, the efficiency of the boiler alone (an ordinary Lanca- shire boiler was used) was 65'4, and the boiler and econo- miser 76*5. As all uncarbonised dust fuels carry possibilities of explosion, it may, in theory, be rightly argued that there is danger in the coal dust. In practice, however, there have been no explosions in the grinding, nor has it fired after being pulverised. By this system the danger is reduced almost to an impossibility, for the ground material is deposited in a setting chamber of wood and canvas, and a lighted candle may be put in this chamber, which is full of floating powder, without causing any explosion. A Berlin firm that has been engaged in grinding coal for the last twenty years have never had any explosions, although these works are lighted by gas. The risk, therefore, is not worthy of consideration. Peat giving out little or no smoke and abundance of gas, a constant hot flame is kept up, combustion is almost per- 46 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS feet, there being no soot and, as has already been said, no cinders or clinkers (peat mull can be manufactured into briquettes, with or without an imflammable plastic binder). Its own acid tar readily and cheaply procured by low dis- tillation, can, if needful, be so utilised ; or by heating it to 180° the material gives out its own tar. In Germany there is a briquette trust controlling thirty-one firms or companies, or more than nine- tenths of all the producers of the Empire, regulating the output and prices for each year. Of the 1,566,385 tons sold during 1901 by this combine, 749,208 tons were taken by the German railways, 124,380 tons were sold to retailers, 497,136 tons were disposed of to various factories and works, and 149,089 tons, or 9'8, were used by the German navy and merchant marine, or exported. The Thuringian Aktiengesellschaft, at Deuben, near Halle, makes briquettes of brown coal in which no matrix or binder is used. The manufacture of briquettes from brown coal (lignite, a vegetable coal of recent formation, and therefore, a less perfectly carbonised structure, and of lower caloric value than anthracite or bituminous coal), has long passed the experimental stage, and become a standard commercial industry. The utilisation of various coals and peat dusts in combination is a subject of importance. Repeated experiments have demonstrated the fact that coal dust mingled and manufactured with peat, in such propor- tions and in such a manner as to produce a compound of great strength and solidity, burns more freely than coal, and, converted into briquettes, yields an intense heat. It cokes perfectly, and is peculiarly well adapted for raising steam ; also is well adapted for the smelting of ores and the manufacture of gas for power and for illuminating purposes. In Germany peat mixed with wood or charcoal is very extensively used in the production of iron, the greater pro- portion of peat employed the better being the quality of the product. Peat fuel, like wood, is improved by age if properly housed and sheltered from rain, snow and frost, and sun. CYCLONE PULVERIZER. PEAT AS AN AETICLE OP FUEL 47 (Hard coal exposed to the weather loses in bulk 8 per cent. per annum ; soft coal fully 12 per cent.) It is in its best condition for use at the end of six months, when it may be said to be perfectly cured. The compressed artificial briquettes may be used immediately after delivery from the machine, but should not be exposed to the weather. A good article of fuel deserves being taken care of. Bitu- minous peat, air-dried, becomes covered with a skin or envelope, which to a great extent protects it from the wet, and this is common to most peats. A new fuel has been introduced by the Kandall Synthetic Coal Company, of Boston, Mass., U.S.A. It is a mixture of peat and petroleum. The peat is raised from the bog by a clam — shell digger or dredger, and conveyed to a disin- tegrator, which separates the fine from the coarse material. It is then treated to expel the water, and again disin- tegrated. Lime is then added, and the whole is dried. Petroleum, with bituminous pitch as a bind, is inter- mixed with the peat in a pug-mill, and the mass is then pressed into briquettes. Following on this, a suggestion to manufacture peat-petroleum has been brought forward. Some extensive experiments have already been made with coal briquettes in the French navy, and with such favour- able results that our neighbours are prepared to place large orders for this fuel as soon as American petroleum owners have perfected the manufacture of their briquettes. The experiments made with oil fuel on H.M.S. " Hannibal " and " Mars " have, so far, been satisfactory as regards the generation of steam, but observers of the trials complained of the latter belching forth a plume of greasy, dark-grey smoke, which would have given her away to an enemy ten miles off. The "Hannibal" returned to port with leaky oil tanks. This betrayal by smoke given off can surely be obviated. The historic trials with liquid fuel instituted by Admiral Selwyn years ago have proved that the smoke difficulty can be overcome. Messrs. Armstrong, Mitchell & Co., the well-known engineers and shipbuilders, claim to have vanquished this foul fiend. If the Admiralty 48 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS is at sea in regard to the way in which oil should be burnt let it consult with Dr. P. Dvorkovitz, Principal of the Petroleum Institute. Perhaps the Wilson smokeless process may solve the difficulty. This simple remedy con- sists of injecting a mixture of air and nitrate of soda solution over the fire. The smoke, it is claimed, is not only prevented, but there is an increase of more than 20 per cent, in the output of the boiler and its evaporative efficiency. The theory advanced by the inventor is that the solution of nitrate of soda creates nuclei of intense heat, which fire the gases and enable the injected air to combine with them. As for the leakage of tanks, that suggests carelessness, and is a subordinate point easily over- come. There is no more difficulty in carrying a mineral oU-tank on a war vessel than on a trader or on a railroad. The advantage of such a fuel as peat-petroleum briquettes would be very great if it can be put on the market at such a price as will render its use as economical as that of coal. In Scotland there is a vast amount of peat in close prox- imity to the shale-oil distilleries, and the briquettes could be laid down at the new arsenal by the Forth Bridge in any quantity and at a cheap rate. One of the earliest experiments with oil fuel for naval service was made about 1867 on a small gunboat, the "Palos," belonging to the United States navy. In forty-eight minutes she ran eleven and a-half knots, whereas her best record with coal was eight knots. The engine-room staflF was cut down from twenty firemen and passers to three hands. The petroleum was supplied from two large iron tanks on deck, each with a gauge at its side to indicate contents, and a vent-pipe on top to permit escape of vapour. From these the oil was conducted through half-inch pipes to the furnaces. Thence it dropped into heated iron retorts and was instantly vaporised. To this mixture of vaporised petroleum and decomposed steam there was added a percentage of oxygen, supplied by atmosperic air forced in by an ordinary air pump. The heat was intense, and the combustion so perfect that there was no smoke. CHAPTER III. PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL. In a paper read by Professor Bi-ande in 1851, before the Royal Institution, be said, " Peat may be rendered valuable eitber from tbe cbarcoal wbich may be obtained from it or by various products derivable from what is called de- structive distillation." Of this destructive distillation and the distillates resulting therefrom, we shall have something to say later on. When it was desired to convert peat into charcoal, the plan adopted by the Irish Amelioration Society was to carbonise blocks of peat, partially dried on wicker- work trays, in movable pyramidal furnaces. The charcoal so obtained varied in character with the peat from which it was produced, and when the peat was compressed, previous to its carbonisation, the resulting charcoal ex- ceeded common wood charcoal in density. Professor Johnson, who is frequently quoted as an authority, states that " when peat is charred it yields a coal or coke which, being richer in carbon, is capable of giving an intenser heat than peat itself, in the same way that charcoal emits a,n intenser heat in its combustion than the wood from which it is made." It is stated that one firm working at Laincourt, seven leagues from Paris, in 1855 converted some ten thousand tons or more into charcoal, obtaining from forty to forty-two per cent, and sold wholesale for one hundred francs the one thousand kilograms (two thousand two hundred and four pounds), which was then about the same price as wood charcoal, and about three 50 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS times the price of wood and mineral coal of the same weight. Again quoting Professor Johnson, we find him recording his opinion that " a peat which is dense as the result of proper mechanical treatment and slow drying, yields a very homogeneous and compact coal, superior to any wood coal, the best qualities yielding nearly twice as much per bushel." Mr. V. Lamy made a series of experi- ments to determine the quantity of heat evolved by the burning of peat compared with other combustibles. One kilogram, or 2| lbs., of the varieties mentioned below evolved caloric as follows : Parts. Wood charcoal 75 Coal coke 66 Charred peat- 63 Bituminous coal 60 Charred wood 39 Dry wood 36 Raw peat 25 to 30 Wood with J moisture - 27 It must be observed that the " charred peat " here referred to was charcoal from air-dried carbonised turf, not from compressed briquettes. As in the case of wood, peat charcoal produced by burning the turves differs somewhat in various localities. The raw material should be of the most suitable quality, and the carbonisation perfect, though not overdone. Dense peat should be selected, that of a fibrous nature being unsuitable, as in coking or charring it yields a friable coal. Charcoal made by a low red heat, not exceeding cherry red, and which has a dull surface, is the most valuable. If the heat be carried beyond this point it acquires a brilliant metallic surface, and deteriorates in quality. That best suited for forging purposes is one that burns slowly and deadens so soon as the blast ceases. If imperfectly carbonised it may contain a sensible amount of hydrogen. Charcoal burning is effected in the open air in piles or stacks provided with a yielding cover ; in pits, in kilns or chambers of brick or stone ; or in iron retorts heated PEAT CHAECOAL OR PEAT COAL 51 externally like common gas retorts. The method of pile burning is that most extensively practised, and to this process the rectangular blocks or turves are well adapted, since the material in this form admits of closer packing in the heap. Heaps six to eight feet in diameter, and four feet high, are a good size. The object to be kept in view is the greatest amount of compact fuel from a given weight of raw material. The system of charcoal burning in the pile may be adopted in treating peat, and is as follows: — Pieces of lumber of equal length are piled concentrically round a chimney or vent formed by driving three stakes perpendicularly into the ground (in the case of peat this vent can be built up of turves). The pieces of peat to be charred are then built up against this chimney on end, and with a slight but gradually increasing inclination or lean- to. A second row, or, in the case of very large piles, even a third is built round in a similar manner, one outside and over the other. The pile or pyramid is then covered with turf or soil to exclude the air and retain the heat, and is kindled by filling the space between the three upright stakes with easily inflammable wood, which is lighted. The character of the smoke or reek issuing from small vents made in the pile indicates exactly the degrees of carbonisation in the different parts. When the charcoal is drawn from the pile, it is extinguished by cold water, dust, or dry soil. The Chinese, large users of charcoal, practise the method of charring in pits. In the United States the Pierce process is largely used for the preparation of charcoal and the recovery of the by- products. Some of the kilns are of large size, capable of heating as much as 60 tons of wood at one time. The wood is heated in brick kilns, 32 feet in diameter and 16 feet high in the centre, and hold 55 cords of wood. The oven being charged with wood-gas, from a previous opera- tion, together with the requisite amount of air for its com- bustion, is sent in by means of steam jets. As the wood dries steam is given off, and is allowed to escape into the air. After about eighteen hours the wood is quite dry, and 52 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS distillation begins. The top of the kiln is then closed, and the exit tubes are connected with the condensers. These condensers are a series of copper pipes set in wooden boxes about 4 feet square and 14 feet long, through which the water circulates. The products of distillation are drawn away by means of fans and passed to the condensing apparatus, and the uncondensed gases, mixed with the proper proportion of air, are returned to the kiln. The carbonising occupies six or eight days, after which the kiln is allowed to cool and the charcoal is drawn. The whole operation — charring, carbonising, cooling, and discharging — occupies eight days. There is more gas than is required for charring, and the excess is used for raising steam. The kilns are set in batteries of sixteen, each set having its own fan and condensers. The charcoal so produced weighs about 20 lb. to the bushel, and is of excellent quality (Fuel, Secbton). The uses to which charcoal can be applied are numerous and varied. The high heating power of peat charcoal, and its freedom from properties deleterious to metal, invest it with peculiar interest to the smelter. It must find a great future in the new process (Neuhausen) of manufacturing aluminium. As a loose granulated substance in conjunction with the porous earthenware slabs (see chapter on Peat Earthenware) for filtering operations at waterworks and in the household, the demand must be great. These slabs can be freed from all organic matter by being replaced in the kiln and reburnt. As iron manufactured by the aid of vegetable charcoal does not splinter, our makers of armour plates would find it to their advantage to experiment with char- coal iron. For horse shoes it has no rival. The Swedish iron, on this account, stands first in the market. The Bowling Company's iron, which, excellent though it be, is not comparable with bar iron produced by peat charcoal, sells (these prices are those of ten years back) at £17 to £19 a ton ; whereas the brands known as " K.B.W. Crown Best Best" was quoted at £7 7s. 6d. a ton, and " B.N.F. Treble Best " at £9 5s. In France there is a large demand at the Catalon Forges, French Pyrenees, where the price PEAT CHAECOAL OR PEAT COAL 53 not long ago of wood charcoal was 54 francs or 45s. a ton. Monsieur M. Challeton de Burghet, a French gentleman of great experience manufactures this fuel, it is said, at a profit of three hundred per cent. Owing to the value of the other bye-products evolved in the process, this charcoal costs practically nothing to manufacture. The Paris chef pays from £6 to £6 8s. per ton for his culinary peat-charcoal, and greatly prefers it to that of wood. Of late it has been largely used in the various cold dry air storage systems. Fresh burnt peat charcoal bleaches all the vegetable dyes. It can be moulded into hard and solid briquettes and flat slabs, and can, in fact, be shaped to any form required. Probably the best and most economical method of con- verting or condensing peat into charcoal is the low distil- lation process advocated by Paul Dvorkovitz, by which all the valuable bye-products are obtained by a continuous automatic system, at a low cost. The distillation of peat for its bye-products is no new idea. Mineral oil and paraffin was produced on a large scale at works established at Marahu, in Brazil, in 1899. In the Jowrnal of the Society of Chemical Industry, there is an account of this establishment, which was producing no less than 80 tons per month of solid paraffin for candle-making. Discarding all previous methods, including carbonisation by super- heated steam and by burnt and consumed gases, this chemical expert uses a comparatively low temperature, and gasifying in the presence of an inert gas which has no chemical or destructive influence on the substances re- ceived, but possessing the mechanical effect of extracting all the bye-products, including the charcoal. The results obtained by Dr Dvorkovitz, who has had a large experience in dealing with peat in Russia, and whose investigations extend over the chief bogs of Ireland, were embodied in a lecture delivered by him before the Society of Chemical Industry in London. This lecture will be found in the appendix. The cost and profits of the process worked on a large scale are estimated as follows : — £43 15 17 10 5 10 15 10 21 £100 15 £25 1 15 12 6 10 54 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS Low Distillation of 100 Tons of Peat: — Products — 35 tons of charcoal at 25s per ton 1 ton of 80 per cent, acetic acid 70 gallons of naphtha solvent at Is per gallon 6 tons of paraflBn oil at £2 10s per ton If tons of sulphate of ammonia at £12 per ton 21 Cost of Manufacture — 100 tons of peat at 5s- 10 tons of peat fuel at 3s 6d - Labour and depreciation Sulphuric acid Net proEt £55 The cost of erecting a continuous plant to distil 100 tons of peat per day should not exceed £1500 to £2000. There is always a ready sale for these bye-products: — Acetic Acid is largely used in dyeing and calico printing, in pickling and preserving animal substances. Proxylic Spirit, Wood Spirit or Hydrated Oxide of Methyle, com- monly known as Methylated Spirit, is used chiefly in vapour lamps, in dissolving resins and volatile oils, and especially shellac for varnishes. Of late years the demand for methylated spirit has increased considerably, and in the near future promises to attain still greater proportions The French in particular are turning much attention to this distillate. At the late International Exhibition of Auto- mobiles at Paris there was a special section for " alcohol " or methylated spirits and its application for driving motor cars, lighting, and heating generally Among the various exhibits were some excellent lamps for household use, notably those of Landi, Denayrouse, and Dalamotte, fitted with mantles like the Welsbach gas lamp. There was a clever radiating household stove for heating purposes, the PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 55 invention of Mr. Barbier. This stove consists of a reservoir from which the alcohol is drawn by wicks into a boiler, where it is vapourised and the vapour, mixed with air, passes into the upper chamber or furnace, where it blazes, heating a metal cupola from which warmth radiates into the room. Some of the heat is also applied to vaporise the alcohol. Open fires resembling asbestos gas fires, were also on view. There were a number of hand or portable heaters for cooking, as well as other evidences, that this alcoholic production industry is destined, at no distant date, to become largely developed. Naphtha is used for making varnishes and for dissolving caoutchouc. According to the Annual Scientific Discovery, peat, " in addition to gas and ammonia, yields a peculiar acid, and a bituminous adipose compound, which is called ' paranapthadipose.' " One of the products ol this is a good solvent of guttapercha, caoutchouc, etc. The crude Sulphate of Ammonia is principally used for manure, and in the preparation of Sal-ammoniac and sesqui- carbonate of ammonia. A mixture of 10 per cent, of this sulphate with 20 per cent, of bone dust, some gypsum (native sulphate of lime), and farm manure gives a manure greatly superior to what is now commonly vended as guano. Paraffin is largely used for making candles, for which purpose it is specially adapted, surpassing all other candle materials, even spermacite, in illuminating power. It is also added to starch to give a gloss and brilliancy to the ironed surface of linen. Carbon pencils for electric light are manufactured from peat charcoal. At present this industry is conducted chiefly at one factory, controlled by an American trust, and by German firms. The field is a wide one, for these American works cover eighteen acres of floor space, employ flve hun- dred men, and turn out four millions of carbon a week. It is not generally known that the British army and navy is, at present, almost entirely dependent upon Ger- many for carbon used in the searchlights of coast defence 56 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS stations and on war vessels, and that British municipalities have mainly to depend upon the same source for their electric lighting. Our relations with Germany are none too friendly, and at any moment we may find ourselves at war and helpless, and the Metropolis and our great towns and works in utter darkness. Here, then, is a grave national danger. There is only one factory in Britain where carbon is manufactured, and there it is made at a loss owing to the cutting of prices by German firms. Mr. Hirst, of the General Electric Company, recently stated "that several attempts have been made to run carbon factories in this country during the last twenty years, but all have failed. Factories have been started in London, and at Barnsley, Brymbo, and other places, but in every case the owners were unable at the outset to sell at the prices charged by German firms. It is impossible to start the industry here under present conditions, but if a tax could be imposed on imported carbon while British labour is being taught to produce it as cheaply as Germany can, it would greatly help. The General Electric Company have laid out £70,000 on land, buildings, furnaces, machinery, ovens, and presses for their carbon factory near Birmingham. The first year was spent in training labour. The result was that we dropped £15,000, and about one carbon in ten was fit for use. When we succeeded we began to sell carbon at the then current price of the German article — viz. S7s. to 40s. per 1000 feet of a certain quality and diameter. The Germans at once dropped the prices charged to English customers, and to-day they charge 25s. here and from 37s. to 40s. in Germany. The Free Traders say that we get our carbon cheaper because of this competition, but if we were to close our factory to-day, carbon would go up to its original price to-morrow. We are compelled to charge the same price as the Germans. Certain municipalities, how- ever, from patriotic motives, give us better prices, and we get small contracts at more than the market price from the Admiralty and War Ofiice. But our Birmingham carbon PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 57 factory is really run at a loss. In the event of war with Germany at any time, it is contended, this country would be absolutely without carbon for the searchlights and the coast defences, while the majority of our streets and cities would be plunged into darkness." By adopting a newly discovered and patented process for the manufacture of peat charcoal, we are confident that the German system of dumping can be met and overcome. Peat charcoal promises to take a leading part in over- coming the smoke nuisance, promoting at the same time thermal economy. It has been found that when smoke has been passed through a filtering medium of peat char- coal, saturated with petroleum, this medium retains all the particles of soot and carbon in the smoke, and the gases, combustible and non-combustible, being enriched and charged with petroleum, thus make a superior gaseous fuel. Part of the heat goes to vapourize the petroleum, and part for lighting, heating, and motive purposes. The carbonized coke also makes a rich fuel, so that all the smoke is utilized. The gas can be used without purifica- tion, scrubbing, or brushing, in internal combustion engines. It is cleanly and convenient, and is important as a producer of power in gas engines. The future demand on an extensive commercial scale for peat charcoal is assured by the new; discovery of its applica- tion, in the form of briquettes, in conjunction with peat tar, in the process of smelting iron ores. To this we desire to direct special attention. Irrespective of our own low grade ores, there are millions of tons of iron sand to be found on the shores of the St. Lawrence, in Canada, and the Tesanki, in New Zealand, all of which, by the processes known as the Eobert Strong and the Elmore oil, can be smelted in the open hearth, and rendered of marketable value. The recent discovery in connection with the application of pyro tar, one of the bye-products of peat already referred to as being obtained in the process of low distillation, and as a bind in the manufacture of non-porous briquettes of 58 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS the low grade pulverized iron ores of Ireland, Cornwall, and North Devon, is of the greatest importance in the direction of developing these lodes. Further, it, in con- junction with the Elmore oil separation process, appears to solve the difficulty of utilizing the large magnetic sand deposits on the Gulf of St. Lawrence and in New Zealand. Vast quantities of iron ore, in the form of dust, are found also in the United States, many of the American ores having the appearance of soft earth or stones which had been disintegrated. These broken up ores and the materials for making briquettes suitable for the blast furnace exist also in Sweden, Norway, and in Spain. The system is the invention of Mr. Robert F. Strong, and, with a view of ascertaining the adaptability of these briquettes com- pounded of ore, peat-tar, lime and peat-charcoal, they have been tested at the Leeds Steel Works, at the Normanby Iron Works, Middlesborough, and at the Clyde Iron Works. These briquettes were tested in various kinds of furnaces for temperature, and they were also mechanically for carry- ing the burthen, and, both as regards their behaviour at the highest temperatures and thgir resistance to crushing, they were found in all cases to stand equal to raw ore. No alteration of the blast furnace was required. Many interesting particulars of this Strong process will be found in an instructive paper, read by Mr. Thomas B. Grierson, M.Inst. C.E., at the Royal United Service Institu- tion, on "The Treatment of Low Grade Iron Ores for the Smelting Furnace." After dismissing Mr. Edison's secret system of binding iron ore briquettes as not having realized the results claimed for it in inflated, sensational, para- graphs of the daily papers, the author, who is an admitted authority on peat, and who occupies a high position in the engineering world, gave the following particulars of the Strong process, which possesses the merit of being of British origin, and which has been adopted at the Broken Hill Mines in Australia, also at the Rio Tinto Works in South Wales, where it is worked upon copper concentrates, " Mr. Strong," he remarks, " has not devised machinery for PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 59 the mechanical reduction or for the concentration of the ore, knowing that there is ample and efficient machinery for the reduction or concentration of the ore, and that there is ample and efficient machinery at hand by various makers for this purpose. He confines himself to putting the ore into a suitable condition for use in the blast furnace. To this end he makes his briquettes of 85 per cent, concentrate, which he incorporates with 5 per cent, of powdered quick- lime and 10 per cent, of pyroligneous tar — 100 parts. The mass is formed into briquettes under pressure, the briquettes being ready for use directly they leave the press, do not require to be baked as Edison's do. The tar in the briquettes is of assistance in economizing fuel in the blast furnace, while the quicklime forms the best possible bind- ing material, and also assists as a flux. Assuming the concentrate to contain 75 per cent, of iron ore, which it does on an average, the briquettes would contain 63-7.5 per cent. — equal to 47-81 per cent, of metallic iron. The briquettes would be manufactured in situ at the mines at which the ore is produced, and delivered to iron works in England at the market price of the ore. They would, how- ever, have an advantage over the raw ore, owing to the fact that they would be more easily reduced, and with a saving of fuel." Such is the briquette which Mr. Strong has devised for employment in the blast furnaces using ordinary coke fuel. He has, however, devised another ore-briquette for use in the charcoal furnace, in which the ingredients are varied. In the ordinary furnace — except the very small ones — the charcoal will not carry the burden. With small furnaces, the production is necessarily restricted and costly. To meet this, and to enable the briquettes to be used in blast furnaces of full size in those countries where charcoal is employed as fuel, Mr. Strong combines powdered charcoal with the other ingredients, adding also granulated limestone as a flux. By this means charcoal pig-iron could be pro- duced in the ordinary blast furnace at a less cost than common foundry pig, and this charcoal pig would be avail- 60 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS able for ordinary steel making, with the result of greatly- improved products. The pig-iron would thus be produced in situ at the mines, and no carriage or freight would have to be paid upon the ore. The cost of transport to the steel works would be that of the metallic product alone., the matrix being left behind in the form of slag. Mr. Strong proposes to systemize the method of pro- duction of briquettes at the mines so as to render the operation continuous from first to last. By a purely mechanical arrangement the rock ore will be mined crushed, concentrated, made into briquettes, and delivered direct to the blast furnaces, while the molten metal would be run into pig-moulds, and delivered thence into railway trucks (or into canal boats) for shipment. The manufac- ture of pig-iron would thus be a continuous process, with a great saving of cost, as against the present mode of producing pig. As regards the cost of mining and concentrating the ore ready for the briquette factory, the author gave the follow- ing figures, which are those of actual working in a mine in Sweden. At the present time (May, 1901) the cost works out at 4s 3d per metric ton of 75 per cent, concentrates. This includes miners' wages, fools, explosives, crushing and concentration, loading and transport to the briquette factory, and management, which comes to Is. SJd. per ton of raw ore. But it requires 2^ tons of 30 per cent, ore to give one ton of 75 per cent, concentrates in Sweden — equivalent to 63"75 per cent, per ton of briquettes. Briquettes, to be of any use in the blast furnace, should be hard, non-porous, impervious to moisture, and capable ot standing rough treatment in the same way as large ore. These qualities will enable them to resist the great superin- cumbent weight in the blast furnace, and the slow grinding action which tends to disintegrate them. Above all, they must be able to withstand the gradual increase of tempera- ture in advancing to the melting point, almost up to which point they should retain their form. This, in the author's PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 61 opinion, is precisely what the British briquettes will do, and what the American briquettes will not do. Before pointing out the working advantages of Strong's ore-briquettes, the author may perhaps be permitted to explain, for the benefit of those not conversant with the blast furnace practice, that the present method of charging is to put in the proper proportions of ore, coke, and lime- stone by hand labour, the materials being in their rough state. The briquettes are put into the blast furnace and smelted in the usual way, but instead of the quality of the metal produced being largely dependent on the attendant whose duty it is to feed the furnaces, the briquettes when smelted, produce, almost automatically, the proper material required, the proper proportions of the ingredients being fixed and invariable in the briquette. With the present arrangement, especially during the night-shifts, any neglect on the part of the man in charge of the furnace in not putting on the proper relative pro- portions of the materials, would, and no doubt sometimes does, result in the metal not being uniform in char- acter, or perhaps quite useless for the purpose intended. "With briquettes this could not happen, as they would be composed of the exact quantities of the ingredients required to produce the specific result. The weighing of the ore, fuel, etc., in the method now in vogue, and the constant attendance on the blast furnace while the smelting is going on, involves considerable expense for labour, a large amount of which would be saved by the adoption of the briquette system. Mr. Grierson believes that the general adoption of the method of making steel from briquettes would result not only in large saving in cost of production, but also in a much more uniform and better quality of the steel produced. During the discussion following, it was elicited that the whole question of the Strong process hinges on pyrolig- neous tar, coal tar being useless for the purpose. In this country it is impossible to extract the necessary supply of this acid from wood or from saw-dust, but in most of the peats we find it in large quantities, and, from experiments 62 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS made with Scotch and Irish peat, the tarry acid yielded by low distillation was better than that produced from wood. Thus, districts having peat and ore can, in the future, be entirely independent of coal in the production of iron and steel, and can produce these metals at even a much lower cost than is possible under existing conditions. Practically each grain of ore is covered by pyro-tar and lime which greatly facilitates its reduction. In conjunction with the Elmore oil process of concentra- tion, it is now possible to smelt magnetic and titaniferous ores, also deposits of magnetite which are found associated with sulphides, such as copper pyrites, iron pyrites, pyrrho- tine, and kindred ores. Advocating this system, which is of vast importance to the mineral oil trade, Mr. H. L. Sulman said — "As regards the Elmore oil method he had lately been investigating its application to a large number of mines. Two or three cases had been mines in which the magnetite was associated with various metallic sulphides, and largely with copper. Magnetic concentration had been tried, and had failed either to withdraw sufficient copper to make it successful as a copper concentration process, or to leave the magnetite sufficiently clean from sulphur and copper to render it suitable for the production of steel. As the result of many trials, he found the Elmore process effect such a separation very perfectly, and to yield pure magnetite suitable for briquetting. He had therefore advised the adoption of the oil method in place of magnetic separation. The Elmore process simply consisted in bring- ing the crushed ore pulps (in water) into intimate and continuous contact with heavy mineral oil. The oil had the property of sticking to the sulphide minerals, whilst it let the oxidised minerals and the gangue pass away. That very remarkable property has not, so far, been satisfactorily explained, but the results were complete and very perfect. Ireland is not wanting in iron ores, and in many instances the mines, worked and unworked, lie in close proximity to vast areas of the best peat. A visit to the Irish Mineral Noie.—Ot Antrim it is said that the whole county rests on a bed of iron ore. PEAT CHAECOAL OR PEAT COAL 6a Section of the Imperial Institute will dispel all doubts on this head. There will be found examples of the oxides of Antrim, Longford, and Leitrim, with articles manufactured from the ore. Lord Trevor contributes samples of ore mined at Deehommed, Co. Down ; Admiral Lord Charles Beresford's agent sends clay-iron-stone from Cavan ; and from Leitrim come samples of the same mineral as mined, and in the form of pig. Samples of the haematite shales won in Co. Cavan are to be found in this exhibition of Ireland's mineral wealth, not the least interesting being those from the Earl of Darnley's estate, Athboy, and from other contributors. At present the Antrim iron ore deposits are being worked, and the material exported to Barrow-on- Furness. Fireclay, suitable for the manufacture of bricks for furnace lining, though the prospecting is far from com- plete, has been found in Co. Limerick, Co. Dublin, Co. Tyrone, Co. Kildare, and in all probability will, on examina- tion, be discovered in the form of ball clays from the granite deposits, of which the Island possesses enormous quantities of superlative quality. As the treatment of low grade pulverized iron ores for the smelting furnace just referred to must create an enor- mous demand for wood charcoal, in the form of coke peat,^ and as coke making and the recovery of bye-products must go hand-in-hand, we desire to call attention to the Otto coke-oven and recovery plant, which, however, so far, has only been constructed to treat coal. Of its adaptability to work equally well with peat we entertain no doubt. An objection may be raised to these new ovens on the score of the great expense of an installation, but the Otto- Hilgenstock Coke Oven Company, Limited, comes to an arrangement on the deferred payment system, by which complete plant, coke-ovens, and the necessary apparatus for the recovery of the bye-products, are erected at the Company's own cost, it advancing all the required capital, and taking the bye-products for a certain number of years in payment. The number of years over which the period of payment is extended depends on amount of bye-products. 64 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS obtainable. The Company has a ten ovens test plant and a staff of reliable chemists, and is prepared to analyze and report on, free of cost, any coal submitted giving the value regarding coke and available bye-products. A careful analysis of various peats has been undertaken by the Company, at the suggestion of the writer. The general advantage claimed for this system are appreciated by such firms as Sir B. Samuelson & Company; Messrs. Bolckow Vaughan & Co., the owners of the Priest- man Collieries ; the Yorkshire Iron and Coal Company, Limited; and many others here and in Germany. Over 16,769 retort coke ovens and bye-product coke ovens, according to the various Otto patents, have now been built. These advantages are briefly as follows : 1. Uniform heating of the whole oven; and this great desideratum is attained to a marvellous extent. Complete control. 2. Diminished length of the combustion flues. 3. Full utilization of the heating power of the gases. 4. Possibility of a most complete supervision of the heating, and of inspecting every portion of the walls. 5. Equality of pressure in flues and coking chambers, rendering the walls practically gas-proof. From which advantages result : — First and foremost a very satisfactory yield and quality of coke or charcoal both in the case of peat and coal. In many plants, consisting of 60 ovens, 50 or more are drawn per day, and it is by no means unusual to have a yearly production per oven of 1700 to 1800 tons. The dimensions of the ovens are : 33 feet long, 20^ inches wide in the middle, 5 feet 11 inches high, but by increasing these internal dimensions this production can be considerably increased. The coking or caking properties are in some instances greatly improved by compression, by which the separating air-spaces between the particles are done away with, and the volatile constituents brought into so close PEAT CHAECOAL OR PEAT COAL 66 contact that the products of low distillation exert a bind- ing influence. By stamping or tamping the charge can be increased from 15 to 18 per cent. Consequently, the coke is firmer and of greater density. Experience has shown that 8 to 12 per cent, of moisture in the coking material gives the best results. The Ktihn coal stamping machine is rapidly displacing hand labour, and by this appliance, at a considerable saving in cost of labour, blocks 33 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 15 inches high have been successfully stamped. This machine can, if required, be constructed to perform the service of a coke pusher, by means of which the coke is pressed out of the oven to admit of rapid re- charging. The power necessary for driving this apparatus is 1 to 1 J h.-p., and the stamp attains a speed of 70 strokes a minute. The advantages are : — 1. Greater durability of the oven. 2. Increased output of bye-products and a richer tar. 3. Large productions of steam. 4. Superior quality of coke-oven gas, with a surplus for other purposes, i.e. for driving gas engines, illumina- ting, etc. The city of Boston, U.S.A., is illuminated by means of gas produced by Otto ovens. The candle-power is 18^ without any other enrichment, " The Peat-fuel Problem, solved at last. Peat-coal by Electricity. A National Industry" was the pretentious heading of a circular issued a few months ago by a Canadian gentleman, Mr. Joseph Byron Bessey. Unfortunately, how- ever, for those interested in peat, a demonstration of this electric process lately given at the works of Messrs. Johnson & Phillips, Electric Engineers, Charlton, Kent, fell far short, in its results, of the advertised anticipations. Mr. Bennett Hayes, C.E., in the British Government Report on Peat, is quoted as saying : " It is obvious that to make the working of peat a commercial success the production must be continuous and uninterrupted throughout the year ; with air-drying alone neither of these conditions can be complied with. The great desideratum remains to ascer- 66 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS tain some method of getting rapidly and economically off the large amount of water which all peat in its crude state contains." This is precisely what legions of inventors have for years been striving after, and in pursuit of which much treasure has been expended. By this "improved process for the manufacture of peat fuel and fibrous peat " all difficulties, we are told, are removed, and in the short space of 2^ hours, from beginning to end, peat-fuel of high calorific power — about 9000 British thermal units of heat and upwards — perfectly smokeless, and free from clinkers, is to be supplied at a cost far below that of coal at the pit mouth. On looking over the provisional and complete specifications of the patent we confess to entertain very considerable doubts as to the future of this somewhat elaborate and certainly costly method, and when the awkward word " chemicals " presented itself our scepticism increased. When we read that, in order to assist the conductivity of the electric current in certain peats, it is proposed to add or use salts, carbonates, carbon, hydrocarboniferous, and suitable rock and other mineral ingredients, we concluded that the cost of these enrich- ments, not to mention the cost of production of electric current, must consume the bulk of the profits. Then when we found mention of tilting troughs for the reception of the green peat, electrodes, rollers, kneading apparatus, disintegrators, heated drums and surfaces, mechanical presses, moulds, etc., we reluctantly concluded that this inventive genius is not destined to solve the difficult problem. Shortly put, the process, as described by the patentee, is as follows: The peat is cut in the bog by the most improved method, and is then conveyed by dumping trucks to the operating plant in the vicinity. The first stage is to pass the peat through a revolving cyhnder or centrifugal provided with beating fans which it is claimed press out most of the water. It is then packed firmly into tilting troughs, or rather receptacles made from wood, and electrodes are inserted at each end sides — to which are attached the electric wires, PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 67 directly or otherwise connected with the dynamo. The mass of peat becomes the mediuni of completion of the circuit between the electrodes. The fibres and cells of the peat not having been ruptured and broken the centri- fugal was iueflfective, moreover, it travelled at far too slow a speed and was of too small a diameter for efiisctive work. It is hopeless to expect any real result from a 2 ft. 6 in. cylinder making only some 300 revolutions. Though admitting the capacity of the electric current to separate the particles, it does not exert that tearing force which is essential. Certainly the current of 220 amperes at 200 volts used at this demonstration failed to produce " a perfectly disintegrated and pulverised material." Electric energy for this purpose had previously been applied in Germany, the United States, and Canada, and had been abandoned. But further than this, the visitors were in- formed by a printed paper handed round that the electric heat dried out the peat, but when we consider that one unit of electricity cannot generate more than 3'410 heat units when passed through wet or damp peat, this part of the claim may be dismissed as purely imaginative. Remarking on this item of the process The Electrical Engineer says : " From the scanty figures we were able to elicit as the result of our enquiries, we understand that 24 units of electricity are consumed in treating one ton of virgin peat, and that the resultant yield of fuel is about 15 cwt. 10 lb. This means a loss in operation of just under 25 per cent., and this in spite of the fact that virgin peat contains from 76 to 80 per cent, of water, which, we are told, is extracted in the process. We are unable to get a satisfactory explanation of this curious contradic- tion." The sample briquettes handed round were testimony to the failure both of the centrifugal and of the electrical treatment. As peat holding 60 per cent, of water looks and feels merely damp, and at 30 per cent, is to all appear- ance bone dry, these samples can have parted with only an inconsiderable amount of this moisture. In a paragraph on the Drying of Incombustibles The Electric Review 68 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS aptly remarks : " Electricity is out of the question as a heating agent in aflfairs commercial except when the article warmed has a value out of proportion to its mass. Sub- stances which are valued in shillings and pence per ton, and have a high capacity for moisture, are not to be dried economically even by direct furnace heat." Three of the briquettes hung in tape before a fire for eight hours showed only a loss of 20 to 2.5 per cent. Keverting to the further treatment of the mass as it leaves the electric baths, it is then passed through rollers on to a kneading and teasing apparatus. We have had some experience of passing wet peat through rollers. Some varieties, no matter how fed to the rollers or how the rollers are placed, stubbornly refuse to pass between them. Smooth faced rollers are useless, and the grooves of such as are fluted rapidly become filled up. There is no patent in the mixing and kneading apparatus, and we very much doubt that the existing type can be improved upon. From this machine the putty-like plastic mass, "which may be expedited by the use of hot or cold pressure," reaches the moulder. The contraction, we are informed, "ia materially hastened by the use of heated drums or surfaces and mechanical presses acting in combination or alone," and, we may add, the cost materially added to. Finally, we are told that by no other heat than that from electricity can these results aimed at be obtained, and that the efiect of heat derived from electricity is quite different and distinct from that which is afforded by any other heat, that of fire for instance. To this we demur, and we deny that the current ruptures the cellular fibre. Disintegration and tearing up of the fibres and air cells can best be effected by mechanical means, and at a lower cost. It is stated that the first installation of this plant is to be erected in Ireland, where a 1000 acre bog has been secured. The issue of this attractive circular was followed by the formation of a concern, the Electric Peat Coal Company, with a capital of £130,000, of which no less PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 69 than £65,000 went to the promoting syndicate. The scheme was " sauced " with a large four-page sheet of press opinions, but only one of any technical authority was quoted, and that journal was very careful not to commit itself The adverse notices of the Electrical Review and another technical journal were conspicuous by reason of their absence. Save as regards the generation of heat in the mass of peat, we deny the possibility of the electric action of which so much is made in the prospectus and in the patentee's claims. As a generality, the carbon compounds are not subject to electrolysis. Peat, seeing that it is an element, could not under any circumstances be electrolysed. That this expensive electrical treatment dries out any appreciable percentage of the large amount of water found in peat freshly graven from the bog was disproved by the sodden condition of the small briquettes handed round at the works of Messrs. Johnson and Phillips at Charlton, which after being weighed and put aside for some weeks in a drawer lost from 36 to 40 per cent, of their moisture. The accuracy of the reports of the chemist and engineer have been freely and very properly questioned. A more unsatisfactory scheme has never been brought before the public, and with the writer of the article in the Electric Review we say : " We would not touch this electrical process even if the peat were dumped down free at the works on the Thames, and we join in his regret that the issue of this prospectus will probably do an incalculable amount of harm to the peat industry. As one of the largest shareholders has, on account of the prospectus being misleading on material points, declined to pay any further calls, we shall probably hear more of this scheme in the law courts. Those interested in the Electro-Peat Coal Syndicate and the Directors of the Company have been warned, and if this gentleman wins his case restitution will have to be made. The coking of peat by electricity is not new. A plant for that purpose was installed some two or three years ago at Stangfjord, in the neighbourhood of Bergen, Norway. 70 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS The heating was effected by an electric current taken from a waterfall in the vicinity. Each kiln was loaded with 400 to 500 kilograms (881-8 to 1-102 pounds) of dried machine peat. The current was of 500 amperes, with a tension of 40 to 50, the temperature of the kiln being about 570° F. The coking was complete in from three to four hours. The resulting charcoal was fairly compact, it was well adapted to domestic and commercial purposes and commanded a fair price, and was in great demand. Herr P. Jebsen, of Dale, Norway, has also invented an electrical process for carbonising peat. By this method the partially dried peat briquettes are carbonised in hermetically closed retorts. Several retorts are treated at the same time by one dynamo. The dynamos are driven by water turbines. The process ensures the carbonisation of the blocks in short time, producing a dense uniform mass showing the structure of the peat. In broken condition the specific gravity of this coked fuel is about 0-3, with a theoretical calorific value of 7000 to 7500 thermal units. It burns well, yielding a very small amount of soot, gives a rapid and strong heat, and the ash does not retard combustion as do the ashes of coals and lignite. The following is the analysis of this fuel from the Royal Norwegian High School at Christiania. Per Cent. Carbon - - - - 76 91 Hydrogen 4'64 Oxygen - - 8-15 Nitrogen - - - 1-78 Sulphur ... -70 Ash - 8- Moisture ... _ 4-82 Total 100- The retorts consist of upright iron cylindrical vessels, about 6 feet 6 inches high and 3 feet 3 inches in diameter. Each retort is provided with a removable cover, a dis- charge hole below, gas exit pipes, and a pressure gauge. PEAT CHARCOAL OR PEAT COAL 71 The retorts have special resistance coils so constructed that the briquettes can be built up in contact with them until a pigeon-holed mass of peat entirely fills the retort, in the centre of which the heating agent lies. The top cover is then clamped down and the electric currents switched on. During this process the peat yields three products. Openings in the retort cover allow the exit of the gaseous products, which are conducted to drying chambers for heating the air. CHAPTER IV. GAS FROM PEAT. That gas of aa excellent quality for lighting and for power can be economically produced from peat, either in its carbonised or partially carbonised solid form, as air- dried, or in the form of tar or its pure residual oil, has been abundantly proved in Europe and in the United States. The attention now being directed to peat and its products must bring inventive genius and combined skill to bear upon the great enterprise, and may be trusted to devise some efficient process such as shall, under certain conditions of locality, bring its gas-producing capabilities into general use. For possibilities in this direction we have only to look back some thirty 3'ears to first crude gas engines of Brayton and the Hock, the latter patented in Vienna in 1873, in which mixtures of petroleum spii'it and air were substituted for coal-gas and air. These were the forerunners of such oil motors as the Priestman, Hornsby, Akroyd, and the Trusty, and the prototypes of the petroleum spirit explosion engine now seen in such perfection in the up-to-date automotor. In connection with peat as fuel, in the form of powder or "mull" with automatic stoking, it may be mentioned that in the Brayton engine, patented in the United States in 1872, ordinary burning oil was sprayed, under high pressure, into a carburettor placed at the top of the combustion cylinder together with a fresh supply of air, and was then led into the explosion chamber and ignited. GAS FROM PEAT 73 In anticipation of what the near future may bring forth in the economy of peat, we take the following from the American Gas Light Journal, written in the middle of last century : — "Take as a period the last fifty years, and see what improvements have been made in the economy of the use of fuel. While our forefathers were content to warm the humble cottage by the aid of the ' fire-place ' which occupied one side of the dwelling, whose capacious jambs required the immense ' back log ' and ' fore stick ' and the various components to form the huge pile for a respectable fire, their children employed the ' box and Franklin ' stoves, which used both coal and wood, and were, scientifically, an improvement in the degree of radiation attained, because they do not carry the most of the caloric up the chimney in the tempest. "From this we come to the more modern and scientific appliances for heating, cooking, etc., embracing heaters and registers, radiators, base burners, smoke and gas consumers, patent cooking stoves, ranges, galleys, and numerous other inventions. So also, in equal or greater degree, has there been improvements in the various processes of smelting and in steam engines, both land and marine, by the aid of im- proved draft or blast, by return, horizontal, and inclined flues, patent jackets, grates, condensers, etc., to more completely consume the smoke and gases, to increase the radiating surfaces, and various improvements, until, when we look back to the old methods, we smile at their primitiveness and inefficiency. " Science is progressive ; and the enquiring mind will ever be on the alert to improve the various appliances now in use, whether coal or other fuel is to be employed, to more completely utilize and economize the caloric evolved during combustion, to devise more economy and to discover and apply substitutes for coal fuel. It is safe to say that by modern improvements we have got from to two hundred per cent, more caloric and work — which is but another name for it — from a given amount of fuel consumed, than 74 PEAT AND ITS PEODtJCTS we did fifty or even twenty-five years ago, and there is no reason to believe the inventive genius of the age will not improve upon the present methods of consuming fuel economically, during the next hundred years in a similar ratio at least." Chemical analysis, as we have already pointed out, shows that, weight for weight, peat contains only three-fifths of the heating properties of coal, and from this theorists come to the conclusion that for raising steam it is little more than one-half as valuable. Practice and theory are, how- ever, often widely divergent, and the tests of the laboratory are not always to be depended upon. Despite the efforts of the inventor, coal, so far, has not been forced to yield any- thing approaching its true theoretical caloric. Under the title "A Study of Power Gas," in the Review of the Engineering Press, there is a valuable contribution by M. Lencaushez to the Society des Injenieurs Civils de France on " The Generation of Motive Power in Internal Combus- tion Engines, and the Utilization of Waste Furnace Gases,'' in which is this striking paragraph : " So far as thermal economy goes, it has been found that, with properly con- structed engines, the efficiency with very lean gas is as high, if not higher than with the richer gas, but, naturally, a larger engine is required to produce a given amount of power." In this connection we may point out that a certain engine gave 80 horse-power with coal-gas and 67 horse-power with blast-furnace gas, or a difference of only 16 per cent., while the thermal values of the two gases were about 600 for the former gas and 120 for the latter. It may be noted that, when only air is employed for the partial combustion of the fuel in the producer, the combus- tible portion of the gas consists of carbonic oxide gas with only a small portion of hydrogen, and the gas has a thermal value of about 100 B.T.U. per cubic foot. When water- vapour or steam is added to the air-supply the gas contains a higher proportion of hydrogen, and has a thermal value of from 130 to 150 B.T.U. per cubic foot. It has been well said that while the nineteenth century GAS FBOM PEAT 75 has been the era of the steam-engine, the twentieth will be that of the gas-engine. The conclusion is unavoidable that the latter is doomed to be displaced by its more economical rival. Its highest development has resulted in its capacity to produce a horse-power per hour from about one and a-half pounds of good steam-coal, which corresponds to an efficiency of not more than twelve per cent, of the actual heat-energy contained in fuel. One of the principal factors in favour of the gas-engine is found in the more direct conversion of the heat-energy contained in the fuel, the heat being directly carried into the cylinder of the engine in the form of gas, whereas with steam the heat has first to be transferred from the coal to the water, and not until the heat appears in the form of steam under pressure, is it in a position to deliver its energy to the piston of the engine. Further, gas can, as has already been stated, be carried long distances withoutmaterial loss or deterioration, while with steam loss by condensation in mains is unavoidable and costly. Again, gas-producers respond immediately to a sudden increase in demand, while a steam-engine must be allowed time to increase its output ; and moreover, what is of greater importance, the working, as between the gas-producers and gas-engines is automa- tically controlled, so that the quantity of gas produced is regulated in accordance with the demand. As regards regularity and reliability in actual practice, it may be men- tioned, as an illustration, that an engine working with Mond gas has run continuously day and night, at full load, for six months without any stoppage whatever. Among the advantages claimed for the use of gaseous fuel are material economy, cleanliness, freedom from smoke, and general convenience. Fuels altogether unsuited for steam- making may be utilized in the gas producer. Although the modern gas-producer shows no fundamental difference in principle from that of the earlier types, many important improvements have been carried out effecting both the more convenient operation of the apparatus and the utilization of the valuable bye-products. Engines of varying sizes (up to 650 indicated horse-power) 76 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS are now working, and indicating a horse-power-hour on a consumption of 60 cubic feet of Mend gas involving the gasification of less than nine-tenths of a pound of common "slack." A safe basis for the calculation of fuel con- sumption is one pound of fuel per indicated horse-power- hour, and this makes provision for intermittent working with various loads. The following ai-e some of the advantages claimed for power-gas applied by the Power Gas Corporation of 39 Victoria Street, London, S.W. This gas is produced from the cheapest quality of coal, namely " slack " or " dross," thus obviating all necessity for expensive steam coal for the generation of power in the works. The amount of labour required for its production is extremely small. The heating value is equal from 81 per cent, to 86 per cent, of the total heat enei-gy contained in the fuel used for its production. Its cost when produced on a large scale is less than |-d. per thousand cubic feet. One ton of rough slack produces about 150,000 cubic feet of power gas of a calorific value of 140 B.T.U. per cubic foot. The quantity of gas required to produce an indicated horse- power-hour in a large gas engine is about 60 cubic feet. When gasified and used in a large gas-engine, one ton of slack gasified is sufficient to produce about 2500 indicated horse-power-hours, or 2500 horse-power for one hour. By using this gas in gas-engines a given quantity of fuel will produce about four times the power obtainable with ordinary steam-engines. The fuel cost of an indicated horse-power-hour, obtained from a gas-engine running with Mond gas generated from " slack " at 6s. per ton, is ^ir^b of a penny. It is best for gas-engines because they require a clean gas of a regular quality. In every steam plant, working with a variable or intermit- tent load, a considerable proportion of the fuel consumed is GAS FEOM PEAT 77 wasted. Some loss under this head is unavoidable, but the employment of gas remedies this. Among the other advantages due to gas fuel are cleanliness, freedom from smoke, absolute control, general convenience, and material economy. At the present moment Power Gas, as applied to internal combustion engines, is attracting much and deserved attention in engineering circles. "The sug- gestion of the more extended use of peat by the establish- ment of a power placed close to the source of supply, with power distribution thence by means of fuel-gas or electricity, is practically interesting and in direct line with the best modern practice in the economical utilization of natural resources" (Editors, London Engineervng Magazine, Nov- ember, 1902). A cheap power is essential to the manufacturer, and this desideratum is found in Producer Gas. Until very lately power users have had to rely mainly upon steam and the steam-engine as a motive power. It is only within the last year or two that the gas-engine assumed its present position as a cheap and efficient power on a grand scale. The rivalry of the electric light, by no means a decaying competitor, has put gas engineers on their metal, and with truly professional spirit strenuous efforts have been made to maintain the development of the industry. The mechanism of combustion is now an anxious study, exercising the active brains of technical savants both at home and abroad. Though there may be no fundamental difference between the more recent producers and the earlier ones, the improvements which have been made are very important, affecting both the more con- venient operation of the apparatus and the utilization of the valuable by-products. Prior to the introduction by Dowson of his producer gas plant, town gas alone was available, and was, on small engines, though not economical, used chiefly on account of its convenience. This practice has now, to a large extent, been set aside by this system by which " poor " or gas of low calorific value is manufactured from inferior fuel. By this method fuels altogether unsuited for steam- making may be utilized. Improvements on the Dowson 78 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS process, adapted chiefly to large powers of over 100 brake horse power, were wrought by Wilson, Dufi" and Mond in England, and by Korting in Germany, but these plants did not affect the problem of the economical generation of power by small installations. These pressure producer or "poor" gas plants have been used for driving gas-engines where economy of fuel has been of the first importance, but the initial cost, the floor space occupied, and the amount of attention required, together with the necessity of having a steam boiler and a gas holder, have prevented their general adoption, particularly for medium and small powers. We are indebted to Mr. Hal Williams, the well-known gas expert, for much information anent the Suction Gas Pro- dMcer ^ which originated on the Continent, and is now largely used for purposes where moderate power is required. It is well known that when a gas-engine is working it produces a suction effect on the gas, and the air it draws into the cylinder vide the gas bag. In the suction plant this has been made use of, and the principle of the process is that the gas-engine, by drawing air or water-vapour through an an- thracite, coke, or peat coke fire, makes its own gas as it wants it. There is practically no waste, for the volume of air and water-vapour passing through the generator is regulated entirely by the number of times the engine takes gas, and, as this in its turn depends on the work the engine has to do, the gas is produced directly in proportion to the load. Owing to the whole of the gas being below the pressure of the atmosphere there is no smell, and indeed, Mr. Williams has seen a plant of this kind working in the middle of a tobacco factory with bales of leaf tobacco stacked all round it. As is generally known, this leaf is very sensi- tive, readily absorbing odours. A comparison of the relative advantages of steam and gas for motive power is instructive, in that it establishes many important points in favour of the latter, the chief of these being the wonderful economy in fuel. " Setting aside for a 1 Peat coke is perfectly adapted to the production of gas by the Suction Producer. GAS FEOM PEAT 7& moment the high speed electric-lighting engines working with super-heat, and taking the average run of non-conden- sing engines providing motive power for the bulk of the factories and works throughout the country, it will be no exaggeration to say that the steam consumption is nearer 40 lbs. per indicated horse-power-hour than 20 lbs. Indeed, one of the principal drawbacks of the steam-engine, from an economical point of view, is the virtue so often claimed for it — that ' it is so reliable,' or, in other words, that unless it has absolutely broken down, it will continue to work so long as there is steam behind it. On the other hand, a gas-engine, like an electric motor, must be either all right or all wrong, and therefore the efficiency cannot fall very low without the engine pulling up and the defects revealing themselves. "About one ton of slack, which can be bought in the colliery districts for 6s. a ton, will produce about 150,000 cubic feet of power gas, having a calorific value of from 130 to 150 British thermal units. A gas-engine of, say, 40 brake horse- power will require from 70 to 80 cubic feet of this gas per brake horse-power-hour. Large engines only require from 60 to 70 cubic feet per brake horse-power hour. What does this mean ? It means that, neglecting the steam required for boiler feed, pumps, etc., a factory steam-engine requires not less than 4 to 5 lb. of coal per brake horse-power-hour, while a gas-engine only requires 1 lb. of coal per brake horse- power-hour. Further than this, to give anything like a good evaporative efficiency, the coal burned in boilers must be of a much better quality than that which can be used in a pro- ducer, and is consequently more costly. Boilers also have to be stoked, and in other ways require to have a larger quan- tity of labour expended upon them ; while gas-producers require little or no attention, and will work very well with only casual supervision on the part of the man in charge. Another great feature of economy where the load is inter- mittent is the facility with which a gas-producer will respond to increased or diminished demands upon it. It takes, or should take, twelve hours to get up steam from cold in a large Lancashire boiler of, say, 250 indicated horse-power. 80 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS It takes from ten to twenty minutes to generate gas for, say, 500 indicated horse-power from cold in a producer ; while if the plant has been standing by with the fire alight during the week-end, this can be reduced to about five minutes" (Producer Gas Power for Factories, Gold Stores, etc., by Hal Williams). At some tests which the author made with one of these suction plants during his investigations on the Con- tinent, burnable gas was being produced seven minutes after the fire in the generator was lighted, and the engine was working on its load three minutes later. Another advantage this producer possesses is that the plant occupies little room, a matter of moment in our great cities, can be placed in any corner of the works, and that the engines can be put close up to their work. In fact, a 50 brake horse- power would stand with ease on an ordinary dining-room table. Suction Gas Plants — the gas produced suitable for heating as well as power — of from 5 to 250 h.p., simple in construc- tion, easily handled, and only requiring attendance at intervals of three to four hours, are now obtainable. One of these subjected to a continuous test of Jsix days and nights ran a gas-engine of 18 indicated H.p.,ideveloping a mean of 169 brake horse-power, and even with this moderate load the cost of working was at the rate of 10 brake horse-power for one penny per hour. The fuel was Welsh anthracite peas costing 20s. per ton. With larger engines (40 b.h.p. and upwards) the economy would have been greater. This works out one-fifth the cost of town gas at 2s. per thousand cubic feet. With Bituminous , Gas Plants the cheapest grade of coal may be used, provided it is of a non-coking nature. Common bituminous slack, whichjcan be obtained in the coal districts and from many of the coal depots at one- fifth the cost of anthracite, and for one-half to one-third the cost of coke, shows equally good results. Till now this low class of fuel for gas producing has been impeded by the great difficulties experienced in using the gas made from it, owing to the presence of tarry vapours in the gas, which condense GAS FROM PEAT 81 but for gas engines which require a very clean gas this is very serious owing to the gumming up and choking of the valves on the engines. The advantages of the " Siuition " type of Gas Producer, as compared with the older form, are many. We enumerate a few: No steam boiler or gas holder is required, so there is no liability to explosion, with consequent extra cost of insurance. It does not need constant supervision as it can run for several hours without being refilled with fuel. It occupies only a small amount of floor space, requires no chimney and no foundation. The apparatus may be fixed indoors, so there is no more danger from fire than from an ordinary stove. There is no risk of gas escaping, as it is generated by auction, and below atmospheric pressure. Great economy of fuel. The apparatus may be " banked " at night or meal time with small loss. It can be restarted, after being shut down, in a few minutes, and even in a cold condition, in from 15 to 20 minutes. Gas is generated only as required. No gas is blown or burnt to waste on light loads. It is smokeless and free from smell. A process in which the writer takes a deep interest, and which is now long beyond the experimental stage, has arrived at a point by which peat gas of low quality can be manufactured suitable for blast purposes, with very high efficiency, and by another process peat gas of very high quality, suitable for heating and lighting, is produced. The producer-gas possesses, for equal volumes, more than twice the potential or calorific energy of the product of Dowson, Dawson, Mond, or other similar systems, and, being entirely automatic in its action, and efficient in small units, is applicable to small as well as to large instalments. The flame temperature of the gas by this system is about 25 per cent, higher than that of town gas. By the use 82 PEAT AND ITS PKODLTCTS of the high potential producer-gas engines can develop their continuov^ maximum power. This gas is free from tar. As the result of extensive investigations and experiments, the well-known firm of Messrs Crossley Brothers have, by- means of a centrifugal tar extractor, succeeded in pefecting an apparatus which thoroughly cleans this gas, rendering it practically as clean as ordinary town gas so far as gas engine requirements go. Using bituminous peat, that bottom variety known as Ince peat, that from the borders of Loch Neagh, Antrim, and the " creashy clods of Scotland, a gas of high potential and a gas of high calorific power, and of uniform quality, is obtained. From the absence of sulphur in certain peats the purification of this gas is much more easily accomplished than that from coal. Some of the bituminous black peat produces gas of good illuminating power which requires no purifying for ordinary purposes. The chief difficulty is the amount of carbonic acid found in the crude gas, but, as in the case of wood gas, this can be eliminated if, in burning, mantles are employed. Purification by means of lime is found to remove a large proportion of this acid. This difficulty is also to a great extent overcome by the partial charring or baking of the raw peat before it is used. There are, however, advantages in peat which more than counter- balance the excess of carbonic acid. As this fuel does not clinker, the process of gas-making can be performed without interruption. The resulting coke being pure vege- table charcoal is of much greater value than coal-coke, and, as stated, can be employed in the manufacture of gas by the suction process. "Gas may be made from peat at a comparatively low temperature, but its illuminating power is then trifling. At a red heat alone can we produce a gas of good quality. The chief impurity of peat gas is carbonic acid. This amounts to 25 and 30 per cent, of the gas before purification, and if the peat be insufficiently dried, it is considerably more. The quantity of slaked lime is, therefore, much greater GAS FROM PEAT 83 than is needed for coal gas, and is an expensive item in the making of peat-gas." {Professor Johnson) As to the yield of gas we have the following data : — Cubic Feet. 100 lbs. of peat of medium quality from Munich gave - - . - . 303 „ „ of air-dried peat from Biermoss, Salgburg gave - - - 305 „ „ very light fibrous peat gave - 379 to 430 „ „ Exters machine-peat from Haspalmoor gave - 367 Thenius states that to produce 1,000 English cubic feet of purified gas in the works at Kempton, Bavaria, there were required 292 lbs. of peat in the retorts ; but, according to Stammor, 4 cwt., of dry peat are necessary, showing that some peats are better adapted than others to the manufac- ture of gas. As in coal, much depends on the composition of the raw material. Experiments conducted at the Lansingburg Gasworks, New York, with air-dried peat, not compressed, gave very satisfac- tory results, the light being white, clearer, and much stronger than that produced from coal in the same retorts. It stood the chemical tests well. With reference to the purity of peat-gas and alleged large percentage of carbonic acid gas, the amount of this latter gas depends greatly upon the district from whence the peat is obtained, and can, in great measure, be overcome by the partial coking of the substance before placing it in the retorts. The absence of sulphur, moreover, renders its purification more easy. In some peats traces of sulphur, have been found, and by distillation we find ammonia. Where carbonic acid is found in any quantity, an extra supply of slaked lime is necessary, and this involves cost. But many of our most extensive peat-bogs, notably the bog of Allen, have a limestone base. In 1862 Mr. Paul stated, before the Society of Arts, that for a long time he had been lighting the works with gas produced from black bituminous Scotch 84 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS peat, that it was of good illuminating power, and, for ordinary purposes, required no purification. Dr. Versemann came to the conclusion that partially charred or baked peat was a most valuable material for gas manufacture, and that it would produce from 12,000 to 14,000 cubic feet of gas per ton of an illuminating power exceeding that of ordinary coal-gas, the amount of carbonic acid not exceeding ten per cent; and although that was somewhat in excess of the average of coal-gas, yet there were advantages in peat which more than counterbalance the disadvantages arising from an excess of carbonic acid. Points in favour of peat are that the resulting coke is equal to charcoal, and that when worked in conjunction with a poor gas-coal it produces a really good gas. Abundant proof of its value, economy, and easy production has accumulated, and once the attention, energy, and inventive faculties of the gas engineer, aided by the practical organic chemist, are brought to bear on the subject, this gas must, for power, heat, and as an illuminant, be extensively used at no distant date. Here then is one other use to which we may apply the great capital which has been accumulating for ages, and has been reserved in store for this enlightened period. Gas from peat, says the Engineering Magazine, is used for heating purposes in several places in Europe, but most extensively in Sweden. In that country it is used for the melting of Martin steel, while in other places it is used in glass houses and the like. The generators used are of very simple construction. In a Swedish magazine, Jernkontorets AnTialer, Rich. Aakermann has given an exhaustive memoir on the use of gas for Martin steel-melting. The peat used in Sweden for generating gas has the following composition : Per cent. Carbon 60 Hydrogen - - 6 4 Oxygen - . 31-7 Nitrogen - - - 1-9 GAS FROM PEAT Or, if hygroscopic water and ashes be reckoned Carbon - - - 38-2 Hydrogen - 41 Oxygen 20-2 Nitrogen 1-2 Sulphur - Ash - - - - 8-6 Water (hygroscopic) - - - - - 27-7 The gases have the following composition : Per cent. of volume. CO, - - 6-9 CO 26 C,H, •6 CH, - 4-4 H - 8-5 N - 53-7 85 The quantity of gas from 100 kilograms (220*4 pounds) of peat is about 262 cubic metres (8,900 feet). The sorts of peat here used have an excessive amount of ash and much (hygroscopic) water. In fact, ordinary peat will not have more than 5 per cent, ash, and when air-dried it will not contain more than 20 per cent, of water. Under these conditions the gas will be of much better composition. It is not known that peat is used anywhere in Europe to produce power-gas on any particularly large scale, but the results obtained of late with the Mond gas generators, where power-gas is generated from slack coal with 60 per cent, of carbon, would tend to show that peat will give as good results. In reality, there is no great difference between such slack coal with 10 per cent, of carbon and good peat, the only difference being the greater contents of water in the peat. But as 2 J tons of water, as steam, are used in the Mond gas generators to 1 ton of slack coal, to regulate the process, the larger amount of water in the peat must not be considered as a drawback, but rather as tending to make the generating of steam superfluous, and thus to reduce costs. 86 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS In the figures given above, showing the composition of Swedish peat gases, nitrogen is present in rather large amount. This results from unmixed air being used for the combustion in the generators; when it is properly mixed with steam and carbonic oxide, the results obtained will prove better. It is now well known that gas may be led economically to great distances for power-supply and for incandescent lighting. Thus, Mond gas is piped in England from central gas works to the surrounding factories, and in Pennsylvania natural gas is piped for distances exceeding 90 miles. There is no reason why gas from peat should not be used in the same manner. It is our opinion that where the peat cannot be used in factories on the spot, it should not be transported, as costs will be nearly double those for carriage of coal ; but power should be transmitted either in the form of electricity or as peat-gas, the former for long distances, the latter for shorter ones. So far back as 1863 peat gas was produced in Holland, and since then, for making and refining iron, in the manu- facture of glass, and in various other directions it has been extensively used on the Continent of Europe. For years past it has been utilized at Salzburg. In 1855 a M. Foucalt was charged by the City of Paris with the scientific examination of this gas, and, his report proving highly favourably, it is difficult to see why his recommenda- tions were not adopted. Probably, as moulded peat was then selling at 20 francs per ton, and its charcoal at 100 francs per ton, the cost of the raw material, brought from a large bog near Liancourt, seventeen leagues from the Capital, militated against the general introduction of this gas. The result of this expert's examination was to give peat a high value as a gas producer. He found its illuminating power to be 340, while that of coal gas was only 100. The manufacture of peat gas was found to be more simple than when coal was used. If placed in an iron retort, heated to a low red heat, it immediately afforded a mixture of permanent GAS FKOM PEAT 87 gases and vapours, which condensed into an oleaginous liquid, the two products separating on cooling. The oil was col- lected in a special vessel, and the gas passed into a gasometer. This carburetted hydrogen is wholly unfit for illumination, as it gives a very small flame, nearly like that from brandy. The oil from the peat is a viscous, blackish liquid of strong odour. If it be subjected to a new distillation, it is resolved wholly into a permanent gas and hydrogen very richly carburetted. This mixture is strongly illuminating, giving a flame six or eight times brighter than the first, and of a more lively brilliancy. The two are mixed, and a gas of intermediate character obtained, which is delivered over for consumption. A mean of five tests gave for a burner of peat gas a light equivalent to twenty-three and one-fourth candles, the same burner with coal-gas six and three-tenths candles only. The illuminating power of pure oil from peat, according to M. Foucault, is par excellence the illumi- nating material at equal pressures ; he found the power of peat oil to be 705, the intensity of coal-gas being 100 ; and with equal volumes the numbers were 756 to 100. Some time ago, Mr. Keats, Chemist to the Metropolitan Board of Works, and subsequently to the London County Council, advised that there was a great future for the employment of peat as a fuel, also in the manufacture of gas. In the making of gas for general consumption he proposed to employ peat gas along with the ordinary town coal gas for the facilities it afibrded in purification. Professor Johnson, of Yale College, writing on the subject of peat gas, remarks : — " It is essential that well-dried peat be employed. The retorts must be of good conducting material, therfore cast-iron is better than clay. They are made of the usual form, and must be relatively larger than those used for coal. A retort of two feet width, one foot depth, and eight to nine feet in length, must receive about 100 lbs. of peat at a charge. " The quantity of gas yielded in a given time is much greater than from bituminous coal. From retorts of the dimensions just named, 8,000 to 9,000 cubic feet of gas are 88 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS delivered in 24, hours. The exit pipes must, therefore, be not less than 5 to 6 inches, and the coolers must be much more effective than are needful for coal-gas, in order to separate from it the tarry matter. "The number of retorts requisite to furnish a given volume of gas is much less than the manufacture from coaL On the other hand, the dimensions of the furnace are con- siderably greater, because the consumption of the fuel must be more rapid in order to supply the heat which is carried off by the copious formation of gas." As those of our readers who are uninformed as to the capabilities of peat may question its value as a raw material for the production of gas, we here give the results of some experiments carried out in Canada, and reported by the Bureau of Mines, Ontario. In 1901 the perfected Merrifield peat-gas generator was designed and constructed by Mr. L. L. Merrifield, engineer to the Economical Gas Apparatus Construction Company, Limited, of Toronto. The new plant was erected for demon- stration purposes at Toronto Junction, and during the autumn of 1901 a number of experiments were made, several of them under the supervision of the Bureau of Mines. Considering the intermittent nature of the tests and the im- perfect installation of the plant, a satisfactory showing was obtained. A gas rich in heating value was produced at a fairly steady rate, and at small cost for maintenance and attendance. Without going into detail, it may be stated that the experiments warranted the following conclusions, namely; That, with connections of suitable size, the generator could produce a much larger quantity of gas per hour or minute than was actually obtained ; that the production of gas will depend almost wholly on the quantity of fuel consumed; and that this in turn depends on the volume of the air blast. The cost of maintenance or attendance may be reduced to a minimum by handling the bulky peat and removing the ashes by mechanical means, and this would also effect a. saving in time. The Merrifield gas generator resembles the extensively GAS FROM PEAT 89 employed Loomis-Pettibone plants, and particularly that one at Nacozari, Mexico, where the usual Loomis system is some- what modified with a view of making a uniform and fixed gas out of the mixture of water and producer-gases, which will be higher in calorific power than producer-gas and lower than water-gas, the fuel employed being wood instead of coal. This result is effected by introducing very little steam with the air blast. The ordinary Loomis generator pro- duces alternately producer-gas and water-gas for short periods of five minutes or so each way, each gas being con- ducted to its own holder. The Merrifield furnaces are also set up in connected pairs, with charging doors at the top. The grates are near the bottom, and below them is a taper- ing bottomless ash chamber, terminating several inches below the surface of the water in the ashpit. The water seals the bottom of the generators, preventing the ingress of air, and yet does not interfere with the discharge of the ashes. Crude air-dried peat in lumps forms the fuel. By the time it reaches the generators from one-third to one-half will have crumbled into fragments and dust, making a compact and suitable charge for uniform consumption in the furnace. The air blast is generated by a small blower operated by gas engine, taking gas from the holder. It passes first through the pipes of the condenser, where, in condensing the moisture out of the hot gases from the generators, it is itself heated up previous to entering the furnaces by way of the chamber below the grate in the bottom. The pipes for injection of steam also enter here. However, on account of the high percentage of moisture contained in the peat fuel, an internal supply of steam for the mixture of water- and produce,i--gas is usually assured. After making a good fire, say of wood, in the grate, the peat is charred into the furnaces by the port holes at the top until they are full, when the caps are again clamped down. By forcing the blast for a while and heating the peat into a glowing mass the process becomes properly started, after which the volume of air is adjusted to the production of the maximum capacity of the generators. 90 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS From now on the operation is continuous except during the loading or recharging periods, covering a quarter of an hour or so once or twice a day. Although set up in pairs the generators, like the Nacozari machines, will most of the time work as one, producing the uniform mixed gas; but should a partial production of water-gas alone be desired, the air blast is shut off and steam injected into one generator, up through the glowing mass of peat, across into and down through the hot coals in the other machine, and out thence to the condenser and scrubber. This continues for a few minutes, until the fire has cooled off, so that the air blast is again required to bring it up to the proper temperature, when the same course is again followed, except that this time the direction of the steam in the generator is reversed, entering the bottom of the second and leaving by the first. Peat, like wood, particularly green wood, is naturally suited, on account of its large percentage of moisture, to steady production of the mixed gas, rather than to the alternate generation of first water-gas and then producer- gas, as with dry fuels such as coal. QUALITY OF MEEEIFIELD PEAT-GAS. In these experimental runs of the Merrifield gas genera- tor the calorific determinations and analyses of the gas were made by Dr. W. Hodgson Ellis, professor of applied chemistry at the School of Practical Science, Toronto. The gas produced on 28th October, 1901, gave the following calorific values at the different stages of the operations : Time. B.T.U. per cubic foot. 3.00 p.m. 96-4 3.10 „ 118 3.20 „ 149 3.25 „ 154-6 3.55 „ 159 4.15 „ - - 125 Average, - 1337 GAS FEOM PEAT 91 The quantity of gas made and peat consumed was not ascertained. The plant had been kept warm during the previous part of the day without generating much gas until this test began, and soon after gas of good quality began to appear a mishap caused a sudden termination of the test. This accounts for tte gradual rise and subsequent abrupt fall in the quality of the gas. Shortly afterwards another test gave the following quality of gas. Time. B.T.U. per cubic foot. 2.10 p.m. 156 2.40 „ 156 3.10 „ - 137 3.40 „ - 156 4.15 „ 153 4.30 „ - 155 Average 156 For some hours previous the generators had run steadily and continued so to the end. In November another run was made, giving gas of the following quality : Time. Calories per litre. B.T.U. per cubic foot. 10.45 a.m.- 889-6 - 1005 10.55 „ 906-8 102-5 n.l5 „ 961 107-5 11.25 „ 889-6 100-5 11.35 „ - 966-4 109-2 11.45 „ 944-1 106-7 11.55 „ 1019 - 115-2 12.5 „ 1041 117-6 3.20 p.m.- 1059 - 1199 3.30 „ 1074 121-4 3.45 „ - 1092 123-4 4.0 „ 1113 125-7 4.15 „ 1097 124-0 4.30 „ - 1147 - 129-6 Average 1013 - H^O 92 PEAT AND ITS PRODUCTS From these detenninations it will be seen that the fuel value of the gas on the day of the test rose from 100 to 130 B.T.U. per cubit foot. The analysis of a sample of the gas taken from the pipe at the conclusion of the calorimeter test, which also marked the end of the whole experiment, gave as follows : per cent. Carbon dioxide, CO^ 20-5 Carbon monoxide, CO - 102 Methane, CH^- 1-9 Hydrogen, H 22'8 Nitrogen, N 44-6 1000 The quantity of carbon dioxide in this sample is larger than was obtained in samples taken in previous tests. In one there was but 12'4 per cent. COg, and in another but 7'4 per cent. An increase of COg, accompanied by a decrease of CO, such as the above analysis shows, would be caused by the lowering of the temperature of the retort at the end of the operation when the sample was taken. The analysis of the peat used in the experiment is as follows : per cent. Moisture - - 25'94 Volatile organic matter - - - 4841 Fixed carbon ' - 18"69 Ash - - 6-96 Another run of the generator was made, and the gas this time tested by Mr. J. Walter Wells. The analytical work was conducted at the gas works, but for the calorimeter determinations samples of the gas were taken in a large aspirator-can from the gas-holder and tested at the School of Practical Science laboratory in the same Junker's calori- meter as was used at the works by Dr. Ellis in the experiments previously described. In forcing the gas out of the can by in-running water some of the tarry vapours were lost by condensation, as was GAS FROM PEAT 93 apparent on examination of the water from the aspirator. In all other respects, however, the method and apparatus worked admirably. In the accompanying table of analyses on page 95, samples Nos. 1 to 11 are of the water-gas type, made by injecting a large excess of steam with a moderate air blast over the hot peat in the generator. Samples Nos. 12 to 16 are of producer-gas made in reheating the furnace charges, which were cooled by the flow of steam for the water-gas, by reversing the direction of the air blast through the generators and shutting oif all steam. On leaving the holders this gas smelt very strongly of tar, and contained considerable vapours. Another similar Merrifield peat-gas generator was in- stalled at the Trent Valley Peat Fuel Company's works, Kirkfield, to produce fuel gas for the dryer, but no tests were made with it, which is to be regretted, since it is said to have worked satisfactorily. The original Merrifield generator, first set up at Toronto Junction, on which the above experiments were conducted, has since been removed and reinstalled at the Welland peat works, where, if desired, test runs may be made with it. Later, the intention is to incorporate it as part of the peat works, to furnish fuel gas for boilers and dryers. COST OF GAS PLANT. From the prospectus of Peat Industries, Limited, concern- ing this method and all necessary apparatus for the pro- duction by it of peat gas, the following is quoted : "From one ton of compressed peat, analysing approxi- mately: moisture, 15 per cent.; ash, 7 per cent.; fixed carbon, 21 per cent.; volatiles 57 per cent.; valued at $1-50 per ton delivered at gas retort, figuring wages at 20 cents per hour, and yearly depreciation at 6 per cent, upon value of machinery, and in a plant capable of pro- ducing 40,000 cubic feet of gas hourly, a yield will be had of not less than 100,000 feet of fixed gas, carrying 94 PEAT AND ITS PEODUCTS not less than 150 B.T.U. per cubic foot, at a cost not exceeding 2J cents per 1000 cubic feet. We will supply all apparatus and material for a plant producing not less than 20,000 cubic feet of gas per hour for $5000, exclusive of freights, cartage to site, and erection ; larger plants pro- portionately. Peat carrying up to 30 per cent, moisture may be used, but the yield of gas will be reduced about 1000 cubic feet for every additional 1 per cent, moisture." This estimate was made for gas plants situated at a distance from the bogs, to which the peat would have to be shipped, and which therefore must first be manu- factured into compressed fuel. If the use of cut-peat be made possible by locating the gas works at the bog, or only at such distances that the peat could be economically transported thereto as cut peat, the cost of the fuel should not exceed 50 to 75 cents per ton. The above experimental runs with the Merrifield genera- tor were made on cut peat, and the analytical tests show that it gives high results. With compressed peat briquettes the advantages over cut peat would be smaller bulk and therefore less frequent handling, lower moisture content and consequently a higher calorific value. There are many advantages to be gained in the use of peat by converting it into gaseous fuel, many of them appertaining equally to other gaseous fuels. While the consumption of the solid fuel involves a loss of heat of 25 to 30 per cent, or more, this loss, if the fuel be con- verted into gas, will be reduced to from 15 to 20 per cent. When the fire-box is sufiiciently large the combustion is complete, and without smoke or soot, leaving always a clean boiler surface. A properly regulated draught insures complete and even combustion. Its comparative freedom from sulphur makes possible a long life for the boiler. A better insulation may be had against loss of heat by radia- tion, and the hot gases from the generator may be utilised for drying the peat which is to be converted into gas. The most important reason, however, why peat gas can be more profitably and extensively employed than GAS FROM PEAT 95 o M H O 1-5 o H § o P5 o H O s 1^ H o do