The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-07-15
sL[-lf1p6EZL MO1TE/SON
INVENTOR o. NE Ne"
PROCESS

Two years ago. when the neaos u ;asti.
financial, mercantile. and educational in
buttons were bending beneath the lmpos..
lions Of the coal trust, President harper ..
The University Of Chicago snrusxee us
shoulders and smiled.
Il do not fear the coal barons. no SAID
IF the worst comes to the worst' l sna'' o1'1
The newspapers printed this declaration |
bf independence, giving 1t widespread pup
ticity. Students of economies were ~.
pressed; and the average citizen remarked;
''Absurd!' when he read 1t next morning -
the breakfast table.
But President Harper had enumerated no
new thought: he had solved no great eco
pomical problem, nor. on the otner manu-
had he said anything startling or ansnro:
He knew that Chicago. or at least that part
Of It which bears the name Hyde PARK, Is
built upon a peat bog. He knew that peat
makes excellent fuel. And he knew that
when the price Of coal scared above the
bone and cook his food without recourse to
healers in bituminous and anthracite.
To the average mind the word peat sus.
kets the crude huts Of st. Patrtck's iand OF
bag, or Holland peasants trudg1pg along
Green meadows In heavy wooden shoes. nut
Yankee ingenuity has dragged it trom those
hnctent settings into the strong light OF MOD
ern Industrial utility. to act - guide to tho
common people. to lead them. tn fact. nem
the coal barons' Egypt into promised Land.
less, and cinderless. Yankee ingenuity fsa
found a way to manufacture excellent coal
out Of Yankee peat. the new process being
made practicable by certain patented ma
ehinery invented by y Chicago man. }. camp
bell Morrison by name.
But whether the common people Will be
benefited financially thereby to any material
extent is an open question: since the new
n-ocess is owned by a corporation, and cor
Dora ions are heartless things. The process
Is already demonstrated success to the
point that this new manufactured peat coal
Is being made every day in Chicago, and
when put to use as steam raiser or ror
domestic fuel it answers all the requirements
pf the most perfect and economical sort OF
fuel 1t has as great heat value as anthra-
cite; it will burn as long, and 1t is consp1c-
rously good fuel in that 1t is actually smoke
less.
oflcials at the Art institute and members
OF the Municipal Improvement league who
Rave looked into the fuel question declare
that manufactured peat coal is destined to
abolish the smoke nuisance In Chicago and
all other carbon smirched cities. Many re-
gard this as Of greater Importance to So
monopoly OF the coal barons.
Coal Trust VI. Peat Trust.
Like all good things with commercial
value, however, the science OF making coal
!. out Of waste prairie lands and marsh ground
Is not to be pushed as philanthropy to give
lhe people a rebate on their winters coal
bills, or to clean our city skies, although
both may follow as incidental advantages
This new application of science to the crea'
ton of wealth was no sooner perfected thar
It was grabbed up by business men who were
quick to see wealth In it for themselves
These have formed corporation, to become
in the peat fuel industry just what Divine
Right Baer and his fellow monopolists are
~ Shn mi roc {f In fho ~
fuel business Is to become a monopoly a.
big as any other in the fuel deld-those WHIT
are behind the new business declare will
CALM confdence-and instead Of one set o
barons proving an anttdote for tho other. thu
people may settle down in tranquility to b
oppressed by both.
Economists like Edward Atkinson and
many OF the nations scientists and tech
meal men have long declared 1t to be re.
proach upon science that Americas limit
less acreage Of peat boys was let 60 to waste
when a proper method, II only discovered
could transmit this raw material into untolt
wealth.
Predictions have been many that whe1
our wood was all destroyed and most O.
our coal. oil, and gas was exhausted thai
there would be nothing left to do but AND
the proper way to convert this peat srount
! into peat fuel. While Boston theorists hav,
been specializing why this task was feasible
} and really ought to be done. a Chicago ma,
= Of Scotch Yankee origin has worked out tn
problem to practical success.
Something About the Process.
The new method is an original one
and simple. as all great things are
simple. The ground 10 dug by ma
chinery, conveyed by bucket chain tt
the plant where it is dried in cen
trifugal machines that whirl at the rats o.
$50 revolutions a minute and automatically
- feed wet peat and discharge dried peat at tn,
rate OF 500 pounds every three minutes Til,
dried stuff is then chopped and conducted
through rotary drier and fed into YER!
powerful press, where, under great pressure
and with heat applied to the mold. It i
pressed from soft, dry powder into hard
dense block much like coal. The pea
Is pressed through an open tube. in
stead Of against a fixed resistanc
mold, and the only base is the movabl
base Of other briquets being pushed gu
ahead, which offer. resistance BY friction
against the side of the mold. Yet that re-
sistance gives pressure Of thirty tons t.