IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING PEAT
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Murdoch Campbell, of Clonṛeher, Queen's County,
Ireland, Land Agent, Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote, of Black-
heath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and John Charles
Augustus Henry Wolffram, of Blackheath, aforesaid, Mining Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR
DRYING PEAT."
Sealed the 24th April 1866, and dated the 2nd November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Murdoch Campbell,
Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote, and John Charles Augustus
Henry Wolffram, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 2nd November 1865.
We, MURDOCH CAMPBELL, of Clonreher, . Queen's County, Ireland,
Land Agent, ALGERNON CHARLES PLUMPTRE COOTE, of Blackheath, in the
County of Kent, Civil Engineer, and JOHN CHARLES AUGUSTUS HENRY
WOLFFRAM, of Blackheath, aforesaid, Mining Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS QR
APPARATUS FOR DRYING PEAT," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in arrangements or
apparatus. for drying peat, for which purpose the peat after having been

page_text: taken from the bog is passed through a mill or mills, whereby it is prepared
and cut (as previously practised) for being submitted to the drying process.
The peat is then, according to our Invention, placed in layers of suitable
thickness upon one or more series of perforated or other trays or shelves,
carried upon or by a carriage or carriages capable of being moved forward
along suitable rails or trams into the drying house or chamber. This
drying house or chamber is by preference of considerable length, having
the line or lines of rails or trams continued entirely through it, so that the
carriage or carriages (carrying the peat), after being passed in, may, when
the peat has been sufficiently dried, be moved along the rails or trams and
out of the drying house or chamber at the end opposite to that at which
it or they entered, and the dried peat then removed. The drying house
or chamber is heated by means of a series of stoves or furnaces (propor-
tioned in number to the size of the drying house or chamber), each of
which imparts heat to a pipe, or flue, or pipes or flues, passing into and
partly along the lower part of the house or chamber and thence back again
to the stove. A steady circulation is maintained throughout the house or
chamber. by the admission thereto of a current or currents of cold air,
created and regulated in extent and rapidity in such manner as may from
time to time be desirable, in order to meet the requirements of particular
cases, by a fan or fans, furnace or furnaces, or other suitable contrivance
or contrivances, according to the extent of the operations and other
circumstances. The cold air becoming heated in its passage through the
drying house or chamber by contact with or conduction from the surfaces
of the pipes or flues evaporates the moisture from the peat, and finally
passes from the house or chamber by suitable openings or passages, which
may conduct it to the several stoves or furnaces before mentioned in such
manner as that it may be employed for maintaining the combustion therein,
or, if convenient, may be otherwise utilized so as to render available the
amount of heat carried off by it from the house or chamber.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
:
filed by the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon Charles Plumptre
Coote, and John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, in the Great
.. Seal Patent Office on the 1st May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, MURDOCH 3
CAMPBELL, of Clonreher, Queen's County, Ireland, Land Agent,
ALGERNON CHARLES PLUMPTRE COOTE, of Blackheath, in the County of

page_text: Kent, Civil Engineer, and JOHN CHARLES AUGUSTUS HENRY WOLFFRAM,
of Blackheath, aforesaid, Mining Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote,
and John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, Her special licence that we,
the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote, and John
Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others. as we, the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon
Charles Plumptre Coote, and John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS
OR APPARATUS FOR DRYING PEAT," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote, and
John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Murdoch Campbell, Algernon
Charles Plumptre Coote, and Jolin Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in arrangements or
apparatus for drying peat, for which purpose the peat after having been
taken from the bog is passed through a mill or mills, whereby.it is prepared
and cut (as previously practised), for being submitted to the drying process.
The peat is then according to our Invention placed in layers of suitable
thickness, upon one or more series of perforated or other trays or shelves,
carried upon or by a carriage or carriages capable of being moved forward
along suitable rails or trams into the drying house or chamber. This

page_text: drying house or chamber is by preference of considerable length, having
the line or lines of rails or trams continued entirely through it, so that the
carriage or carriages (carrying the peat), after being passed in, may, when
the peat has been sufficiently dried, be moved along the rails or trams and
out of the drying house or chamber at the end opposite to that at which
it or they entered, and the dried peat then removed. The drying house
or chamber is heated by means of a series of stoves or furnaces (propor-
tioned in number to the size of the drying house or chamber), each of
which imparts heat to a pipe or flue, or pipes or flues, passing into and partly
along the lower part of the house or chamber, and thence back again to
the stove.
A steady circulation is maintained throughout the house or
chamber by the admission thereto of a current or currents of cold air,
created and regulated in extent and rapidity in such manner as may from
time to time be desirable, in order to meet the requirements of particular
cases, by a fan or fans, furnace or furnaces, or other suitable contrivance or
contrivances, according to the extent of the operations and other circum-
stances. The cold air becoming heated in its passage through the drying
house or chamber by contact with or conduction from the surfaces of the
pipes or flues evaporates the moisture from the peat, and finally passes
from the house or chamber by suitable openings or passages, which may
conduct it to the several stoves or furnaces before mentioned in such
manner as that it may be employed for maintaining the combustion therein,
or, if convenient, may be otherwise utilized so as to render available the
amount of heat carried off by it from the house or chamber.
The manner in which our Invention may conveniently be carried into
effect will be fully understood by reference to the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings, Fig. 1 of which represents a longitudinal vertical section of part
of the length of à drying house or chamber, Fig. 2 a transverse section of
the same through the line A, B, of the foregoing figure, and Fig. 3 a
sectional plan, showing the general arrangement of the flues and lines of rail.
The house or chamber in this case consists of a building a, of considerable
length in proportion to its width, capable of being heated as required by
means of stoves or furnaces b, communicating with flues c, terminating in
chimneys or stacks d. In any convenient position or positions of the
length of the house or chamber is or are placed a fan or fans e, whereby
air be drawn into the small chamber and forced through the opening
g into the drying house or chamber a. Throughout the length of the
house or chamber a are laid lines of rail h and i, provided with carriages j,
may

page_text: fitted with perforated trays or shelves k, upon which the peat to be dried
is laid, the respective ends of the drying house being provided with folding
or other doors for the passage of the carriages into and out of the drying
house or chamber as required. The action of the arrangements described
is as follows:-The peat, duly prepared as described, is cut or otherwise
formed into cakes or blocks of convenient size, which are then placed
upon the shelves or trays k, and the carriage or carriages then moved
forward along the rails into the drying house or chamber. The doors at
each end are then closed, and a current of cold air is forced into and
through the house or chamber, and becoming moderately dried and heated
in its progress by contact with the flues c, slowly evaporates and carries off
the moisture from the peat without causing the disintegration which arises
when moist peat is submitted to a comparatively high temperature, whereby
the evaporation induced is so rapid in its character, and consequently
causes the outer particles to become so loosened and divided one from
another, that unless pressure be employed for condensing the blocks, they
are liable to rapidly crumble and fall apart, besides occupying very much
greater space than blocks which have been more slowly and equally dried,
and have hence retained their firmness and solidity unimpaired. When the
blocks or cakes of peat have been sufficiently dried, the carriages are
moved forward along the rails out of the drying house, and the dried
blocks or cakes removed for use as required. It is obvious that the
air instead of being forced into the drying house, as described, may enter
it by openings situated at the end, or at points farthest removed from the
fan or fans, which may be modified, as shewn at Fig: 4, so as to draw air
through instead of forcing it into the house or chamber; otherwise the
same end may be accomplished by the use of a furnace or furnaces, or
other suitable means.
From the foregoing description it will be understood that our Invention
differs from other systems which have been employed for a similar purpose
in the use of a current or currents of cold or unheated air passed into the
drying house, and subsequently moderately heated in its or their progress
by contact with flues or pipes as described, so as to slowly and gradually
carry off the moisture from the peat, instead of a like current or currents
of air passed or introduced into the drying house or chamber in a heated
state as usual.
The several parts of our Invention may be more or less modified to suit
circumstances, and we do not confine or limit ourselves to the precise
arrangements or details represented, but we claim as our Invention the

page_text: general arrangement and combination of parts constituting an apparatus
for drying peat substantially as described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Algernon Charles Plumptre Coote,
and John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, have hereunto set our
hands and seals, this First day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
ALGERNON C. P. COOTE. (L.S.)
HENRY WOLFFRAM.
(L.S.)