Omaha daily bee., 1905-09-23
PEAT BRIoUETTES AS FUEL
Eastern Railroad Experimenting
with Compressed Mud as n Sub
stitute for Coal.

The possibility OF utilization of millions
of tons OF peat and the creation of a rival
to coal and water power as means Of car
rying on the worlds industries may be
completely demonstrated by processes now
in use in Lexington.
The Boston & Maine railroad is using
briquettes of peat in some OF it's engines
on the shorter runs in and out OF Boston,
and experiments with the new fuel have
been pronounced successful. This encour-
ages many persons to believe that a pc
riod of new commercial possibilities is at
hand. Watching the operation of the en-
gines that use the peat is the inventor
OF the apparatus for preparing peat, who
believes that ne is about to revolutionize
the conditions OF manufacturing In districts
far from coal fields.
The story OF peat is not new. The fuel
has been used for centuries in Europe.
In its scientifiec aspects It has been studied
for years in this city. But the results OBJ
tained at Lexington, Mass, are most not
able.
The conditions there are like those of
thousands OF places In America where
vegetable deposits which have accumulated
through ages invite the scientist and the
promoter to the utilization OF coal in a
primary process of formation. Beside the
southern division of the Boston & Maine
railroad and close to the Concord post
road is a reedy swamp OF about 160 acres,
a soggy mudhole such as may be found in
almost every county outside OF the arid
portions OF the United States. 1t is per
haps. a little less oozy and quaking than
some swamps.
In this swamp, according to the esu-
mates OF engineers, is vegetable mold
.VVA A.
roads entering Boston for 100 years, at
the present rate Of consumption. II Is a
vast mine, even though the deposits lie
on the surface. The bog shows hardly
anywhere less than twelve feet Of black
mud and at places in the center borlngs
have gone down eighty feet before the
hard pan OF clay subsoil was reached.
A little ditch full Of clear water on one
side of the swamp represents all that has
been done by the taking out of a few
thousand tons. Incidentally II indicates the
outcome Of this kind of mining. The face
OF the earth will not be dishgured. The
holes In the ground will simply add to
the number of the country's lakes.
The peat manufacturing plant at East
| Lexington has as a chief feature a bri-
quoting house equipped with special ma
chinery into which wet peat is thrown and
| emerges in the shape OF pressed cylinders
with a hole running through the center
/ They are compact and almost as hard as
! coal after they have been dried under in
/ tense heat. A kiln for carbonizing is under
| construction.
The motive power department Of the
| Boston & Maine has for several weeks
/ been trying this fuel on shifting engines
and for short local runs. II has been founC
| that the peat briquettes make an excep
/ tionally hot FIRE and that the cost Is lesi
| than that OF coal. while little smoke comes
, from the smokestacks. The only disad
vantage that has appeared is one that will
disappear II the use OF the briquette be
comes universal Peat fuel cannot be useC
with coal In the same locomotive. on
kind OF fuel must be employed or the other
The peat briQuettes have not been tTiet
yet for long railroad runs for the reason
that depots Of supply would have to b.
established along the route, since al
through trains have 20 coal up frequently
New York Herald.