IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING, CHARRING, Granu- LATING, COMPRESSING, AND BURNING PEAT, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE- WITH
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Barff and Joshua Kidd
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 19th March 1874.
:
We, ARTHUR BARFF and JOSHUA KIDD, both of Lawrence Pountney
Lanc, in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING, CHARRING, Granu-
LATING, COMPRESSING, AND BURNING PEAT, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE-
WITH," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to apparatus and appliances for drying,
charring, granulating, and burning peat; also in an improved method
of treating peat so as to make it applicable for different useful purposes.
In carrying out our improvements we commence by draining the
moss, and after removing the top fibrous sod we harrow the surface so
as to leave the upper layer of moss exposed to the drying action of the
air in a powdered or disintegrated state. We then collect the powdered
moss after being partially air dried and place it in a revolving cylinder,
or in a chamber where it can be kept in a continual state of agitation.

page_text: We then force the products of combustion from a fire by means of a
fan blower, or by the exhausting power of a jet or jets of superheated
steam through or around this cylinder or chamber containing the dis-
integrated peat. In this way the peat is more quickly dried or charred;
if desired the hydrocarbons may be distilled from off the peat placed inside
the cylinder by the heated products of combustion, which may be forced
either inside or outside said cylinder. After the peat is charred wo
remove it from the cylinder and pass it through any suitable mill or dis-
integrating machine so as to reduce it to fine powder.
When it is intended to char peat in a chamber as described and set
forth at Figure 3 of Patent Specon., No. 520, dated 12th February
1873, we force the disintegrated peat through a tube placed horizontally
by means of a piston worked by a crank, or it equivalent. The peat in
its passage through the tube becomes compressed, and on being driven
out of the said tube by the action of the piston breaks off by its own
weight into short lengths. The falling pieces are caught in suitable
trays or baskets, which after being arranged on trucks are placed in the
charring chamber as before described.
+
The furnaces for burning this fuel should consist entirely of fire-bricks
or other refractory material. One form of furnace we construct of a
long horizontal, cylindrical, or barrel shape, open at each end, widest
in the centre, and conical or tapering towards the outlet and inlet orifices,
which outlet and inlet orifices form the narrowest or most contracted
part of the furnace.
For some purposes we construct a cylindrical retort open at one end
and closed at the other. This retort we build in any ordinary furnace
with the open ends towards the door in such a manner that the products
of combustion will escape out of the entrance or mouth of the fire-brick
retort into the fire-box of the furnace proper. The fire-bars in said fire-
box should be covered with brickwork to prevent the admission of air.
To start these retort shaped cylindrical furnaces we first heat the brick-
work red hot with coal or coke placed upon a temporary grate inside:
cach cylindrical furnace, after which we remove the fuel and grate and
inject into the cylindrical furnace powdered charred peat. The form
of injector we prefer to use for this purpose is described and set forth

page_text: in English Patent Specification, No. 930, dated March 29th 1867, and
illustrated at Figure 4 by letters E, G, F, D, D¹, B, B¹, on Drawing.
Compressed air may be used instead of steam if required in this
form of injector for forcing the powdered fuel into the cylindrical
furnaces.