Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and FuelJohnson, Samuel W. (Samuel William)
Science
Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel
Johnson, Samuel W. (Samuel William)
Fertilizers; Fuel; Peat
No data are at hand regarding the cost of producing fuel by Challeton's
machinery. It is believed, however, that his own works were
unremunerative, and several manufactories on his pattern, erected in
Germany, have likewise proved unprofitable. The principle is, however, a
good one, though his machinery is only applicable to earthy or pitchy,
and not to very fibrous peat. It has been elsewhere applied with
satisfactory results.
_Simplified machinery_ for applying Challeton's method is in operation
at Langenberg, near Stettin, in Prussia.[23] The moss-meadows along the
river Oder, near which Langenberg is situated, are but a foot or so
higher at the surface than the medium level of this river, and are
subject to frequent and sudden inundations, so that draining and partial
drying of the peat are out of the question. The character of the peat is
unadapted to cutting by hand, since portions of it are pitchy and
crumble too easily to form good sods; and others, usually the lower
layers, at a depth of seven feet or more, are made up to a considerable
extent of quite firm reeds and flags, having the consistence of half
decayed straw. The earthy peat is manufactured after Challeton's method.
It is raised with a steam dredger of 20 horse power, and emptied into
flat boats, seven in number, which are drawn to the works by an endless
rope operated by horse power. The works themselves are situated on a
small sand hill in the middle of the moor, and communicate by canal with
the dredger and with the drying ground. A chain of buckets, working in
a frame 45 feet long, attached by a horizontal hinge to the top of the
machine house, reaches over the dock where the boats haul up, into the
rear end of the latter; and, as the buckets begin to raise the peat, the
boat itself is moved under the frame towards the house, until, with a
man's assistance, its entire load is taken up. The contents of one boat
are six square yards, with a depth of one foot, and a boat is emptied in
20 minutes time. Forty to forty-four boatloads are thus passed into the
pulverizing machine daily, by two chains of buckets.
The peat-mud falls from the buckets into a large wooden trough, which
branches into two channels, conducting to two large tubs standing side
by side. These tubs are 10 feet in diameter and 2 feet deep, and are
made of 2-inch plank. Within each tub is placed concentrically a
cylindrical sieve, or colander, 8 feet in diameter and 2 feet high, made
of 3/8 round iron, and it is within this that the peat is emptied. The
peat is stirred and forced through the meshes of the sieve by four arms
of a shaft that revolves 20 times per minute, the arms carrying at their
extremities stiff vertical brooms, which rub the inside of the sieve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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