Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-11
PEAT ITS SALVATION.
An Undeveloped Resource That May
Make Old Ireland Rich.
BURIED IN ITS MIGHTY BOGS
Lie Clothing for Its Masses and Factories
for Every Purpose.
4 NEW FIELD FOR MANUFACTURING
rcoRRHspoxDExor OF THE p1srArcH.I

| pletely altering the face of the country. and
| which will also considerably mitigate the
economic difficulties under which it has
| suffered for many generations. The merest
| tyros in the political affairs of Great Britain
and Ireland must be very we'll aware that
the economic difficulty is at the seat, and is,
in reality. the pivot of the Irish question.
The periodical missions of political men
dicants to the United States must have
proved many and many time that there is
vast amount of extreme poverty and cark-
ing care throughout the Emerald Isle, and
from which only the moneyed commercial
and agricultural classes are exempt. Ire
Jand's poverty has been for long period
the one factor ever present and ever press
ing, which has engaged the attention OF
British statesmen, and has, at times, COM
pletely upset their calculations.
Irelands Undeveloped Resources.
But ireland is not irredeemably poor; she
has not been handicapped by Providence
and nature. ,Irishmen themselves, ire
spective of religious or political creed, are
united in cordial acceptance of the fact that
there are many industries natural to ireland
, in her undeveloped resources.
Bearing this pregnant fact well in mind
uuuUeE VI SeutlcLutu are dt tuc
present time engaged in negotiations for
turning to &C cunt the vast accumulations
OF peat which exist in Ireland in such a way
as to create great national industry. This
scheme is not untried or imaginative. but
one which has been tested with such splen-
did results at Maestricht, in Holland, and
Meppeu, in Germany, that it has passed
beyond the stage of mere experiment into
one of potent reality and giant pecuniary
success.
1t is not for one moment pretended thar
this one matter is going to produce COM
mercial millennium in ireland, nor is peat
suggested as a panacea for Nationalistagit
tion or alleged British misgovernment. The
promoters simply point to the fact, patent
enough to every Irishman, that peat is
natural vegetable growth in ireland, that it
is practically neglected, and that by such
neglect great industry, close at hand, with
immense commercial and industrial possi-
bilities, is bein wasted.
Wealth Lying Dormant. e.
ireland possesses 5000, 900 acres of bog,
capable of yielding 1000, 600, 600 tons of
dry peat. which has been and is dormant
source Of great wealth, if properly utilized
in the light of recent discoveries and scien-
tifc development. Many of the Irish bogs
are very deep, some of them as much as 40
aud even 60 feet, but of course the average
bog is more shallow. Peat has hitherto
only been used as fuel and for distillation
purpose. AS fuel it is only partial sue
cess on acco. mt of its bulk of water, and in
some cases in consequence Of Its large yield
of ash. ~
An Irish peat company between 1910 and
1850 attempted 10 utilize peat on q large
scale for distillation purposes, particularly
parafhn, but the results were SO poor as to
entail financial loss, and the Atlantic
wave of American petroleum which swept
over the country subsequently, obliterated
the remotest possibility that ever existed of
turning peat to profitable account by these
methods.
The foregoing will serve to show that even
the most practical experiments up to the
present, SO Tar as ireland is concerned, have
utterly failed to utilize, with permanent re-
muneratiye results, the peat bogs which are
at present in such luxuriant abundance.
The fact of the matterls that the experiences
of continental experimentalists in recent
years have proved that the reduction of peat
to oil, tar and charcoal are not the highest
uses to which it can be put.
Cloth Made of Peat.
There are infinitely great possibilities IN
peat. 1t is vegetable growth capable of
devotion to great purposes, hitherto un-
dreamed of in our philosophy, and of bene-
fitting commercially, industrially and
socially the people of Ireland. Now what
has been done is this: A couple of business
men have discovered and applied msAods
of treating fibrous peat so as to convert it
into cloth for suitings. blankets, rugs, quilts,
carpeting and druggeting, wool, tooth
powder, disinfecting powder, horse litter.
flock, pail covers, mattings, socks, frieze,
patent fuel in the shape of briquette and
other things too numerous to mention.
At Maestricht and Meppen they have ac-
complished this, beside which they have
overcome what has hitherto seemed impos-
sible, viz: The fertilization of peat lands
They are prepared to do all this for Ireland
If company with sufficient capital can be
formed, and there is no doubt from present
Information that there speedily will be. On
the lands at Meppen the properties have
raised, BY certain process of fertilization
known to themselves, the most magnificent
crops. They have proved that peat land is
capable of fruitful treatment and that the
possibilities OF it are not limited to the pro-
duction Of fibre susceptible of conversion to
manufacturing purposes.
Every Bit of 1t Useful tr
In treating the peat at Meppen and Macs
tricht the drying process is followed by the
extraction of the fiber, leaving pure moss
litter. Other processes follow which
convert the fiber into q soft wool as fine as
the best wadding. From the waste powder
are made disinfectants which are used in
the Paris municipal slaughter houses, NOR
tuary chambers, primitive and modern
water closets, etc.. and, In addition 1t ami
hllates noxious ef1uvia, is a powerful abb
sorbent, an anti-epidemic an unfailing in
secticide and an excellent manure. This
powder carboniznd m a Les eYcelIent oharcoal
for the manufacture of gunpowder, or smoke
less powder under another process.
To convert raw fiber into useful manu-
factures was a triumph of ingenuity. At
their model factories at Maestricht and
Meppen the proprietors have erected ma
chinery which has accomplished what had
for sometime been a gigantic difficulty.
This was the application of the material to
textile purposes. The difficulties met with
in, carding aud spinning had rendered sew
eral attempts abortive. These thave now
been surmounted and by means of patented
machinery that which starts as raw fiber is,
by the time it has gone through a regular
course of purely mechanical treatment, spun
and woven by the last machine.
Mixed With Other Fabrics.
What the machines do is to cottonize the
fiber and card and spin il into a yarn, which
may be knitted or woven and made into a
variety OF articles like any other yarn. 1t
may be spun pure or with an admixture of
cotton, wool, mango, waste. shoddy. or any
other appropriate textile material. The
yarns can be sold,to any spinner for manu-
featuring. purposes. All the articles have
three great Recommendations
They are antfsceptic, they are hYgienic,
they are absorbent.
Possibly there is one greater consideration.