The Alaska citizen., 1910-09-12

and Alaska not 1000 tons were used in 1908, says C. A. Davis in a bulletin published by the United States Geological Survey. The high price Of coal and other fuel in Alas ka. due to the fact that il has to be remote communities away from Wa ter transportation routes, and the very general occurrence of peat beds throughout the territory make it especially pertinent 10 consider briefly al this time the possibility of utilizing peat prepared by some of the simpler and cheaper methods in use in Europe
 Peat is partly decomposed vege- table matter that is intermediate in character and fuel value between wood and coal. When properly pre- pared and aired it burns freely and gives of more heat than the best wood but not so much as bitumin- ous coal of good quality.
 IL is of widespread occurrence in the moister parts of the earth, and. in somewhat fibrous form, covers great areas in Alaska, especially in the regions where tree growth Is sparse or lacking. In this part of the world it is formed chiefly by the growth and partial decay ot mosses. grasslike plants. water plants. shrubs and more rarely trees. It develops only in places where the ground k covered by water is very wet, or k frozen, or where the air is very moist. One of the forms of peat is the brown vegetable matter that covers the great barren and tun- dras of the northern part of Alas ka
 The chief difficulty in using peat for fuel is that it is always saturat- ed with water, or nearly so, as it is found in the beds. and has to be dried before it can be burned. The drying can be done most cheaply and quickly by exposure to the wind and sun.
 In northern Europe peat is used for heating and cooking by the common people. and to a consider able extent also for producing steam ir,at ing and power purposes. For these uses it is prepared and sold as C) cut peat; @ machine peat, or pressed peat; t3) peat powder; (4) peat coke or charcoal. Peat gas is also made, either in retorts, with coke or charcoal and various chem ical substances as by-prOducts, or in the gas producer, in which the peat is all converted into loWgrade fuel gas, called producer gas" This gas may be used for power production, by burning under boilers or, more economically and with greater efficiency, in gas engines of the explosive type. Used in this way, peat is better fuel than the best grades of btuminous coal burned under steam boilers of the ordinary types.
 Peat is also used extensively in Europe and to a less degree in the eastern United States as stock bed  ding, for which il is especially adapted. It is also used ill the manufacture of chemical fertilizers as a filler.
 As peat is successfully prepared and used for fuel as far north as 66 degress 39 minutes north of lat tude in Sweden, and in Iceland, where the season is very short and the air very moist. there seems to be no reason why it should not be used in Alaska, in places where other fuel is costly, even if labor is high. In the expectation that the great stores of fuel in the peat beds of Alaska may be used to some ex- tent, the following brief statement of simple ways of preparing the peat for use is given.
 Cut peat is made by cutting out the denser layers of peat beds with spades. The part of the bog to be used is drained, if necessary, by ditches from 30 to 50 feet apart and l foot wide. The peat is cut from the working trench started at right angles to and at the head of the ditches. The cutting is done with sharp, straight, narrow spades in regular courses, which are as wide as the bricks are long and as thick as the length of the spade will per nit The courses are further diVid- ed by horizontal cuts which regu- late the thickness of the bricks. The size Of the bricks depends on the readiness with which the peat dries and its density. Small bricks should be made if the climate is moist and the peat dense In Europe the bricks are cut from a foot to a foot and a half long and from 4 to inches wide and thick In some localities the spades used for cutting has a marrow steel lug welded at right