IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS POR TREATING PEAT AND OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Hull Terrell and Thomas Don at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
29th August 1865.
We, HULL TERRELL, of Basingball Street, in the City of London, Gentleman,
and THOMAS DON, of Alpha Road, New Cross, in the County of Kent,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS POR TREATING PEAT AND OTHER PLASTIC
MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to treat peat in such manner as to prepare
it for fuel and to obtain gas and other products therefrom. For these purposes
the raw peat is first delivered into a jacketted pug mill heated by steam or
otherwise, and is then passed through a macerator (Buckland's peat mill,
Patent Number 2218, dated Thirtieth September, 1859, is preferred for the
purpose). The fibres and cellules of the peat are thus broken. The peat is
then conveyed to a moulding machine.
Our improved moulding machine consists of boxes or moulds in which work
plungers or pistons actuated by cams or other appliances acting in like
manner. Knives or cutters cut off the blocks of peat when ready to be

page_text: discharged, and are lifted up, when not to act, by weighted levers or other
contrivances worked by preference from the main or cam shaft of the moulding
machine. The blocks are delivered from the moulds upon trays carried on
an endless band.
The peat is fed into the moulds from hoppers or shoots, in which work
feed plungers driven by cams or the like, to which motion is transmitted
by chain wheels or otherwise. The band travels continuously, and the
pistons in the moulds work with a reciprocating motion, so that there is an
interval of time between the separation of the consecutive blocks, thereby
leaving spaces which allow heated air to get at and impinge upon the sides
and surfaces of the blocks. The contrivances which work the knives, endless
band, and feed plungers are driven by preference from the 'main or cam shaft.
The bodies, shells, or sides of the moulds may be made cellular or hollow to
admit steam or other agent to heat the peat. The peat is then conveyed to a
drying apparatus.
Our improved drying apparatus consists of a number of chambers placed
one above the other, in which trays containing the peat are placed. This may
be done by an endless band or by hooking or connecting a train of trays
together and sliding or pushing them on tram plates, rails, angle iron or
V-guides, or in grooves. The surfaces travelled over may incline or slope
from the entrance to the exit of the drying chamber. Heated air is admitted
into the chambers laterally or across the trays, that is to say, in a direction at
right angles or transverse to the direction in which the trays are propelled into
the chamber. It may be admitted by slots or narrow openings so arranged
that the currents of air may flow between the blocks and an uniform
distribution of heat throughout the apparatus be obtained. The air escapes
from the chambers through similar slots or narrow openings. These
last-mentioned openings are so arranged as to produce a baffling and dif-
fusion of the heated air about the blocks of peat before it can escape.
The air passes through these openings into exhaust passages, and is
exhausted by an exhaust fan or other means. The dried peat is afterwards
carbonized.
Our improved oven for the purpose is provided with a fire-box or furnace in
which the fuel instead of resting on fire-bars lies on a shelving bed. Com-
bustion is promoted by driving into the furnace jets of gas, which may be
obtained from the peat under carbonization or distillation in the oven. The
products of combustion pass through flues formed by partitions or walls under
and above the close chamber in which are piled or packed the blocks of peat,
which are thus exposed to heat circulating at top and at bottom. The gases

page_text: given off are carried through an outlet exhausting pipe or still head into &
condenser to be collected and utilized. The waste heat may be carried to and
used in the drying apparatus. The Invention may be applied to other plastic
materials besides peat.