IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PEAT TO RENDER IT USEFUL AS FUEL, AND FOR ILLUMINATING AND METALLURGICAL PURPOSES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Evans, of 69, Glocester Terrace, Portman
Square, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PEAT TO RENDER
IT USEFUL AS FUEL, AND FOR ILLUMINATING AND METALLURGICAL PURPOSES."
Sealed the 25th April 1862, and dated the 2nd November 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Evans at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
November 1861.
I, GEORGE EVANS, of 69, Glocester Terrace, Portman Square, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
PEAT TO RENDER IT USEFUL AS FUEL, AND FOR ILLUMINATING AND METALLURGICAL
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in treating bog peat in such a manner as to render
it useful as fuel, for raising steam in ships and for stationary engines, and a
variety of other similar purposes; also in treating peat so as to render it fit for
use in the smelting and reduction of ores and metals, and also in procuring from
peat gas suitable for illuminating purposes. I take a quantity of fresh cut
peat, using it in a large proportion, and by suitable mechanical means I add
and incorporate well with it about twenty-five per cent. of vegetable or mineral
carbon dust, and where fluxes are to be introduced varied proportions of the
mineral earths commonly used as fluxing agents, thereby enabling the smelter
to apply at one and the same time a fuel and flux to the furnace. Dressed
metallic ores may also be added to the composition. The fuel thus produced
Pil

page_text: dries rapidly by simple exposure to the air, and as the water evaporates
acquires considerable density and cohesion while it is free from sulphur.
The above treatment is pursued when the peat fuel is to be used for heating,
metallurgical or illuminating purposes, but in the latter case, coal, oil, petro-
leum oils, and tar may sometimes be added.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Evans in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st May 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
EVANS, of 69, Glocester Terrace, Portman Square, 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-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Evans, Her special licence that I, the said George
Evans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Evans, my 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 Bri-
tain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PEAT TO RENDER IT USEFUL AS FUEL, AND FOR
ILLUMINATING AND METALLURGICAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said George Evans, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said George Evans, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
Ordinary peat when first raised from the bog contains from 50 to 75 per
cent, of water, held in close suspension by the capillary tubes of the vegetable
fibre, which peat is chiefly composed of; and the peatis so thoroughly saturated

page_text: with water that practically it has hitherto been found almost impossible to
deprive it of its superabundant moisture, and nearly every attempt to bring
peat into commercial use has proved abortive. The plan commonly adopted
for drying it by long exposure to the air involves much loss of time, and still
permits the peat to retain a large amount of moisture, and it is then too light
and porous for some of the more important uses to which it might otherwise
be applied.
The object of one part of my Invention is to readily deprive raw peat of so
much of its moisture as may leave it fit for a variety of practical uses, and by
which I am able to convert it while wet, and in its pulpy state, into such a
consistence that within a few hours of being raised from the moor, it can be
manufactured into fuel or material for other useful purposes. To attain this
object I combine with the saturated peat other matters of a dry and absorbent
nature, and which by abstracting its water so alter its character, that the
body or mass so formed can be readily compressed and moulded into shapes
of any required size, while the materials so added do not injure the qualities
of the peat, but rather improve them.
The material I select for this purpose is either mineral or vegetable carbon
or charcoal, preferring vegetable carbon on account of its well-known power
of absorbing fluids, but which it will as readily part with under pressure.
In using mineral carbon dust, Iprefer that of anthracite coal, the sulphurous
coals not being so applicable for the purpose. I sometimes use other well
dried carbonaceous materials, such as granulated peat, sawdust, spent
tanners' bark, or such like substances of a combustible nature, which after
their combustion leave little or no residuum behind. In furtherance of the
same object, that of drawing away from the peat a large amount of its
superabundant water, and altering its character so that it shall no longer
resist compression, I sometimes, particularly for metallurgical purposes, add
unslaked lime or some other earthy minerals used as fluxing agents.
In order to render fresh cut peat as it is raised from the bog immediately
available for the manufacture of fuel, I take 100 parts of such fresh cut peat
and add to it, according to the more or less saturated state in which it may
be found, from 10 to 25 parts of vegetable or mineral carbon or some other
well-dried combustible materials, as herein-before stated, and sometimes I
further add from 3 to 5 parts of unslaked lime or some other earthy minerals,
mixing and incorporating the whole well together in a pug mill or other
suitable machine till the mass is brought into a state of consistence suited
to receive pressure and to be moulded into blocks, bricks, or forms of any
other kind, and thus a fuel of great heating power is obtained, useful for

page_text: raising steam in ships, locomotive and stationary engines, and for a variety of
other purposes. When the fuel is intended for the smelting furnace, I some-
times mix and incorporate with it the dressed ores of the metals, and the
required fluxes, thus supplying at one and the same time the fuel and the
flux for the more ready reduction of the ores.
For the production of illuminating gas I take the crude oil obtained from
coal, coal tar, the oil extracted from bituminous shale, petroleum oils, or any
one or more of the cheaper hydrocarbonaceous materials of commerce, and
incorporate them singly or combinedly with peat, adding if necessary a small
quantity of caustic lime to facilitate the extraction of the water, and render
more perfect the amalgamation of the peat with the oils, and in this manner
I produce a substance from which gas for illuminating purposes can be obtained
in great abundance, and which compound may be substituted for coal in the
manufacture of lighting gas.
Having thusdescribed the nature of my said Invention, and how the same
is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to any precise combinations or proportions of the materials herein-
before described, as they may be varied without departing from the nature of
my Invention, according to the purpose for which the fuel or composition is
to be applied, and what I claim is, treating raw or wet peat in the manner
herein-before described to render it useful as a fuel for all purposes, and as a
combined fuel and flux for smelting ores. I also claim the combination with
peat of the crude oils distilled from coal, coal tar, the oils distilled from
bituminous shale, petroleum oils, and the cheaper hydrocarbons, either
together or separately for the production of a composition to be used in the
manufacture of
gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Evans, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-two
GEO. EVANS. (L.S.)