IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR TREATMENT OF PEAT OR TURF AND THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF INTO CHARCOAL AND OTHER FUEL, DRAIN PIPES, BUILDING AND OTHER TILES, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREIN
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Kelly at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th May
1863.
I, JOHN KELLY, of Brook Lodge, in the County of Roscommon, Ireland,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OR TREATMENT OF PEAT OR TURF AND THE
MANUFACTURE THEREOF INTO CHARCOAL AND OTHER FUEL, DRAIN PIPES, BUILDING
AND OTHER TILES, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
According to my process I clear off the spongy surface or sphagna of the
bog which is to be cast over the part cut out to form a surfaco earth, and
when in excess to be converted into charcoal to be used as a manure or
deodorizer for sanitary purposes, or if very fibrous into a roofing material. The
bank so cleared is perforated at the back, and spars of wood driven down to
sever and detach it from the rest of the bog, so as to divert the course of the
water and prevent it from oozing into it, and thereby facilitate its drying;
and to promote its further drying by capillary attraction (if necessary) the
surface is perforated and scored, but if from and free from undecomposed
woody fibre, this operation is dispensed with. It is then cut into pipes of from
12 to 18 inches long and from 3 to 8 inches bore by suitable metal tubes of
the same dimensions, or into blocks of various shapes for building purposes, or
freed from woody fibre and reduced to a plastic pulp (which operation may be
performed on the bank with the most simple implements or machinery). The
mass is then transferred in hand barrows or other convenient mode of carriage,

page_text: piled and arched on high or level dry ground in upright oblong clamp-like
bodies to a considerable height, supported if needs be at the sides and ends by
stakes and hurdles (of a simple and inexpensive constructrion) as the building up
process proceeds, which as staying instruments will assist the future ventilation
or drying process, and this may be further effected by perforations made occa-
sionally through the mass of piled up peat. By this simple self-supplied
pressure the mass is reduced to a compact and comparatively solid body, being
deprived of excessive moisture; this deprivation of moisture is what has
hitherto baffled all attempts at successful peat manufacture in Ireland. Theso
comparatively solid clamps or peat ricks improve by keeping, and can be
allowed to remain not only one but many winters, obviating the necessity of
cutting turf annually in the ordinary way and the uncertainty of drying it.
The great space required for the removal of turf so cut has been hitherto con-
sidered a great objection to its general application even when dried under the
inost favorable circumstances. These peat ricks will occupy but one-fourth
of the cut out bog, leaving the remaining three-fourths available for agricultural
purposes. When the peat rick is about to be removed it is cut into perforated
shapes or blocks for fuel or charcoal, or moulded by an ordinary tile machine
iuto pipes for draining or into blocks for flooring and building purposes. These
peat ricks will become of great density when allowed to remain over so as
that chambers may be formed by excavations wherein fires are to be placed;
the internal heat and currents of air through the perforations will effect a
thorough drying of the whole mass, and a uniform heat is to be kept up by
keeping the cracks or fissures that occur in the ricks filled and plastered with
the plastic peat. The peat ricks may be made sufficiently large to afford
space in the chambers for the excavated and other material to be moulded and
dried and to serve as a temporary residence for the operatives, whereby this
species of industry may be permanently carried on at all seasons, or the manu-
factured articles may be placed in temporary sheds (roofed with hurdles
plastered with plastic peat) in a position such that a current of air will pass
through them, by which means they will undergo a slow process of drying
which is necessary for their perfection.