The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-10
MUD TO
 RUN LOCOMOTIVES

But the fact that the Boston and Maine Railroad Is now using briquettes of peat in some of its engines on the shorter runs in and out of Boston, and that the experiments with the new fuel thus far have been pronounced success ful, encourages many people to believe that the period of commercial possibili- ties is at hand Eagerly watching the operation of the railroad engines that use the peat is the inventor of special apparatus for preparing 1t. who holds, as the enthusiastic adventurer should that he is about to revolutionize the conditions of manufacturing In dis tricts that are not accessible to coal | fields. ~E....-= -:. .:
 Of course, the story of the possibili- ties of peat is not new. The fuel has been used for centuries in Europe and Am erica. In its various scientific as- poets 1t has been studied for some years past at the Massachusetts Insti- ute of Technology In this city. Speci- mems of peat and other types of vege- | table decomposition have been exam ined and experimented with by investi- l gators and students in the department headed by Professor Charles s. Norton, in accordance with the Institutes plan of keeping its instruction always in advance of the industrial procession. The matter of substitute fuels" has been made a special study there during the last three years; last spring, for example, students made elaborate ex- aminations of the methods employed at the now famous works in East Lex ington and embodied their conclusions in graduating these.
 The manufacturing processes carried on at this industrial experiment sta ton during the past two years under direction nf ~ Iygv has made frst-hsnd study of peat in different parts of Europe and America,
 are mainly responsible for renewed public interest In the problem of utili- zatlon. The only question is as to their immediate utilization; has the day come when it is possible to produce and sell peat briquettes at a price that makes them economical? Scientists and industrial experts already foresee the day when they may become an im- portant consideration to a manufactur- Ing nation.
 If the thing succeeds at East Lexing- ton' so it would strike the layman, then It ought to be successful almost anywhere The conditions in the his- torlc town are just those of hundreds anu thousands of other places in Amerlca where vegetable deposits ~hlch have accumulated through ages | 7, '"V SClSutlst ana the promoter to the ever-fascinatlng attempt to utilize what Is known to be coal in a primary process of formation. Alongside the
 southern division of the Boston and Maine Railroad, and close to the celebrated Concord post road, there
 stretches reedy swamp of about 16O
 acres-the kind of vast. sogRy mud
 hole that you will find in almost every
 county outside of the arid portions of | sne united States. It Is, perhaps, a
 nttle less oozy and quaking than some
 swamps-one of those that have been
 gradually filled up with abundant vegetation. Glorious just now around
 the cages With goldenrod and asters,
 1t looks as if it might be made rich
 ly productive for the agriculturist by | effective draining
 l hut It IS destined to other uses. if 1 present plans succeed. In 1t. accord
 Ing 10 the estimates of engineers. Is
 vegetable mould enough to make fuel
 to supply all the railroads entering
 Boston for the next hundred years, at
 the present rate of construction. It is
 vast mine, even though the de-
 posits lie entirely on the surface. The
 bog shows hardly anywhere less than
 twelve feet of solid black mud. and at places in the centre borinEs have