Omaha daily bee., 1908-09-27

ing is done to a depth of about six feet in
a channel fifteen feet wide.
The material delivered aboard the barge
is picked over by hand to remove sticks,
pebbles and large impurities and Is then
elevated by chains and buckets into a
hopper. The material is finally delivered
into a trough fitted with fixed knives.
When the peat is sufficiently dry 1t is cut
into regular blocks and is ready for use.
Many peat briquettes of one form and
another have been placed upon the Amer
lean market in comparatively small guam
titles in the last few years. A hard block
lozenge-shaped briquette about three inches
in diameter and one inch thick has been
made and sold by a company whose head
quarters are in Chicago. A Massachusetts
company for a time manufactured a syn
thetic coal out OF a mixture of peat and
petroleum, with bituminous pitch used as a
bind.
In Canada a compressed peat fuel has
had considerable use, as, for instance, at
the power house of a Toronto street rail-
way company, from which it is reported
thai the heat produced Is more intense
thar tina of coal, though somewhat defi-
cient in lasting power. 1t is further al
legged in favor OF briquetted peat that IL
burns without smoke, SCOT. dust or clinkers
and that 1t saves wear and tear on the
furnaces.
In spite Of all such nice things said about
black muff as an understudy Of coal the
fact remains that It continues to play a
very minor part in the drama Of American
industry.
No trust, so far as is known, is getting
! options on the Dogs. There has not even
been an approximately accurate apprisal
OF the extent OF the vast reserve OF power
represented In the swamps and salt
marshes of the country. When the late
Prof. Nathaniel s. Shaler of Harvard uni
versity made a report on the subject to the
Geological Survey in 1895 he gave in detail
some very instructive Information about
the formation. growth and geographical
distribution OF peat boys in the United
States, but he ventured no guesses as to
the number OF tons OF combustible mater
! ial,
7 Perhaps the amount. is beyond all com
putation, especially as the southern
swamps and marsh lands. which, from the
absence Of sphagnum moss are composed
Of a mud that is not technically peat, are,
nevertheless, full OF fuel possibilities. 1t
is known, for Instance, that the Great Dis
NAL Swamp in Virginia contains about
1000 square miles with an average depth
OF fifteen feet OF pure vegetable matter.
Upward OF 100000 100000 cubic yards of ma
terial, representing probably when pre-
pared at least 5000 900 tons, could be
taken from this hole alone.
New Jersey and the New England states,
sections deficient In local supply OF an
thracite and bituminous. have especially
rich deposits Of this coal in the primary
process of formation, and these are all the
time increasing in richness, for bogs,
unlike coal mines, improve with age. As
long ago as 1850 Prof. Edward Hitchcock
in his geological report Of Massachusetts
announced that in fifty towns OF the Com
mon wealth $4,000 acres or l25 square miles
were covered with peat to an average depth
of six feet. and that these deposits should
yield about 100000 tons Of fuel. The
great quantities Of combustible peat were
found in digging a subway Il a matter Of
recent metropolitan memory.