IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF PEAT AND PEAT D CHARCOAL FOR SMELTING AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alexander Lyttle, of the Grove, Ham-
mersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF PEAT AND PEAT
D"
;
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alexander
Lyttle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 30th March 1874.
:
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND USE OF PEAT AND
PEAT CHARCOAL FOR SMELTING AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
-
-
;
I produce peat charcoal in any of the well-known methods, and then
having ground this charcoal to powder I incorporate it thoroughly with
moist or undried peat freshly dug from the bog. This incorporation is
continued with fresh additions of the charcoal, if necessary, so long as
the mixture retains sufficient cohesiveness or plasticity to admit of

page_text: its being shaped into blocks in any of any of the well-known brickmaking
machines..
It is evident that by this means a chicaply made and brittle charcoal
can be compacted into dense masses by means of the plasticity of the
moist peat, whilst a large quantity of the latter can be deprived of its
redundant moisture when thus mixed or masticated with the dry charcoal
in any of the well-known pugging or other masticating machines em
ployed for preparing peat.
Red-hot peat charcoal is easily reduced to powder, and the pulverizing
of such charcoal, as well as its agglutination into, a mass suitable for
moulding or compression into blocks may be effected by one and the
same operation if it is shot by measure into suitably constructed "pug"
mills with the requisite proportion of wet natural peat. The red heat of
the charcoal will of course cause the evaporation of a large quantity
of water from the wet peat, and a larger proportion of the latter can
thus be utilized.
A small per centage of plastic clay as a thin cream may be added if
desired; and it is also possible to incorporate with the peat and peat
charcoal either pitch, tar, mucilage of starch, or any of the other
materials now employed for consolidating the dust of fuel; but in that
case the charcoal must not be in a red hot state. This fuel may also be
made with an admixture of "small coal" or coal "duff." It may also
be made with an admixture of all the ingredients of a complete smelting
charge, consisting of iron ore, lime, and any other fluxing materials
which may be needed with the particular kind of orc used. All these
substances should be in a broken or powdered state, and should together
with the peat charcoal be thoroughly mixed up with the raw wet peat,
as herein-before described.
The dryness of this powdered mixture of ore and fluxing materials,
more especially if ground "quick" or caustic lime is used, will admit of
a large proportion of raw peat being employed, and a much smaller pro-
portion of the charcoal powder will thus be needed. Coal dust can be
either wholly or partially substituted for the charcoal in this metallurgic
compound.
If bydraulic lime or cement is used instead of the whole or part of
the required fluxing proportion of ordinary lime, greater hardness is
speedily attained in the finished masses. This compound of iron ore and

page_text: peat may be made with no more carbonaceous matter than will suffice
to reduce the iron to the fluxed metallic state, the requisite melting
hcat being obtained by the combustion of a separate interstratified
charge of any desired fuel, or this additional fuel may be burned in any
desired manner in order to effect the reduction and fusion of the iron.
On the other hand the compound peat and iron fuel may be made with
a full proportion of combustible matter for the complete reduction,
fluxing, and fusion of the iron.
The masses moulded into shape by means of wet peat, as hercin-before
described, may either be allowed to dry spontaneously or they may be
kiln dried. They may also be coked when it is desired to turn the
whole of the peat into charcoal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Alexander Lyttle in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 28th September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty.
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Alexander Lyttle, Her
special licence that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, my exc-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Alexander Lyttle, my exccutors, 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 THE PREPARATION AND USE OF PEAT AND PEAT Charcoal
FOR SMELTING AND OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, my exccutors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their

page_text: In consolidating powdered charcoal or other fuel with raw natural
peat, as hercin-before described, all the ingredients which with the fuel
would make up the complete contents of an iron smelting furnace charge
may be added in a powdered state, namely, iron ore, lime, and sand or
clay, or any other fluxing materials which may be needed with the
particular kind of iron ore used. All these ingredients together with
the powdered fuel should be thoroughly incorporated with cach other
and with the raw peat, and should then be made into lumps, which when
dry or set can be dealt with for "smelting" or producing pig iron
in the same way as has been specified in dealing with the metallurgical
concrete described in my Letters Patent, Numbered 749, of this year,
entitled "Improvements in the Means and Apparatus for Smelting
Iron."
The dryness of this powdered mixture of ore and fluxing materials,
more especially if ground "quick" or caustic lime is used, will enable
a large proportion of raw peat to be employed, and a much smaller pro-
portion of the charcoal powder or other fuel will thus be needed.
If hydraulic lime or cement is used instead of the whole or part of
the required fluxing proportion of ordinary lime, hardness is more
speedily attained in the finished masses. This compound of iron ore and
peat may be made with no more carbonaceous matter than will suffice
to reduce the iron to the fluxed metallic state; the requisite melting
heat being obtained by the combustion of a separate interstratified'
charge of any desired lump fuel in the ordinary smelting or blast furnace.
In that case, if the peat is rich in carbon, the raw natural peat used for
consolidation of the powdered materials may alone suffice without the
addition of any powdered fuel.
The "duplex furnace" described in my Letters Patent, Numbered 749,
of this year, hercin-before mentioned, is well suited for the smelting of
such masses as contain no more than the quantity of carbon needed for
deoxidating the iron and converting it into fusible carburet.
The masses moulded into shape. by means of wet raw peat, as herein.
before described, may either be allowed to dry spontaneously or they may
be kiln dried. They may also be coked when it is desired to turn the
whole of the peat into charcoal. In that case, when powdered coal or
charcoal only is consolidated, there may be added to and incorporated

page_text: with the peat a solution of sulphate or chloride of aluminum, according to
Barker's patent process for consolidating coal dust by means of those salts.
When a mixture of powdered charcoal or coal is thus incorporated.
thoroughly into a stiffly plastic mass by means of raw peat, the quantity
of sulphate or chloride of aluminum mixed therewith may be very small
as compared with the proportion which would be required if raw peat
were not so used in order to impart solidity to the mass. When
however the powdered fuel thus consolidated by means of raw peat is
required for smelting purposes only, or for any purpose in which a heavy
ash is no cause of objection, the aluminous salt may be replaced by a
thin cream of plastic clay, which hardens on coking the mass. :
It is desirable that peat charcoal required for consolidation, as herein-
before described, should be made in such a way as to be most-readily
reduced to a finely powdered state, and in order to accomplish this I.
adopt the following methods:-
The upper surface of the peat bog being cleared of all vegetation and
roots is ploughed, and when the upturned peat has become partially
dried it is cross ploughed, with further exposure to the drying action of
the air. This broken peat is then removed from the surface of the bog
to the charring works, at which the following furnace or oven for the
production of a powdered charcoal or coke should be provided. This
oven is a horizontal rotary iron cylinder resting upon and adapted to be
rotated by bearing or friction wheels on which it rests, and its con-
struction may be made in all respects similar to that of the various
rotary retorts patented by James Young and various other persons, for
the distillation of mineral oil from coal. The object of this arrangement
is that the aforesaid broken air dried peat may be thoroughly exposed by
the rotation of the cylinder to the drying and charring action of a
current of red hot carbonic oxide blown through the cylinder from a
suitable furnace, the flue of which fits closely to one end of the cylinder.
I do not furnish detailed Drawings of this cylinder oven, because the
well-known arrangements of revolving furnaces already in use, or
patented for the rotary puddling of iron, and for use as rotary rever-
beratory furnaces, as well as those of the above-mentioned oil retorts are
perfectly adapted for the required purpose, the methods of effecting
rotation, together with the manner of securing closeness of air-tight
frictional bearing between the end of the revolving cylinder and the
:

page_text: stationary furnace at. its end, being equally suitable to the working.of
the peat charring cylinder. At one end of this cylinder a hopper is
provided with its shoot curved downwards, so as to enter the cylinder,
and deliver therein the broken peat, which is made to distribute itself:
as the cylinder rotates by means of a projecting iron screw rib which is.
fitted inside the cylinder from end to end, the height of the rib being:
about one-third the diameter of the cylinder. When a sufficiency of.
peat to charge this cylinder has thus been introduced the cylinder should:
be rotated slowly with reversing movement, so as to turn over and
expose the whole of the peat to the hot blast without allowing it to be
forced to either end by the action of the screw. The stationary furnaco
at one end of this cylinder should be made air-tight, and should be fed.
with a forced blast of air passing through such a depth of incandescent
fuel in this furnace that the gas escaping at its top into the cylinder
shall consist wholly of carbonic oxide and nitrogen, without any free
oxygen. This gas or flame on passing through the charring cylinder
will dry and char the broken peat, and the condensible vapours thus
generated may be liquified in receiving mains, as at gasworks, whilst
the gases may be burned for fuel. In precisely the same way the dust
of coal may be charred; whilst prevented by the rotation of the cylinder:
from coking into solid masses. The incorporation of powdered chalk or
lime with the coal dust effectually prevents its forming hard lumps.
Figure 1 is a sectional front view, and Figure 2 a sectional side view
of a stationary furnace or oven well adapted to the charring of peat,"
provided the peat under treatment is supplied, not as powder but in
the form of lumps or "sods." A, B, Figure 1, represents the body of this
furnace, into which air dried or even wet peat sods can be tipped from
above in the same way as fuel and ore are now charged. into an iron
smelting furnace; N, O, Figure 1, and N, N₁, Figure 2, represent the
bearing beams of iron, which serve to carry the peculiar system of
rocking fire-bars upon which thic peat in the chamber A, B, must. rest.
These are shewn in side view N, B, N', Figure 2, and they have cach a
pendent lever attached H, I, Figures 1 and 2, by means of which they
can be moved in the way herein after described.
When the chamber A, B, is charged with peat, red hot carbonic oxide
is forced into the air-tight chamber D, E, underneath the fire-bars, and it
makes its way upward, through the lumps of peat, drying and charring
them in its course. When sufficient time has elapsed for the charring

page_text: When it is deemed necessary to discharge the chamber D, E, the trap
door E, F, is opened and the powdered charcoal is thus launched down-
ward along the inclined plane or shoot M under the extinguishing action
of a copious spray of water cast upon it. The trap door E, F, may
either be worked on the hinge at its top E with the draw bolt F, as
shewn in Figure 2, or it may be made in the form of a close fitting sluice
valve, like those used in gas mains. .
When it is thought necessary to save the hydrocarbon vapours
generated by the coking it will be necessary to provide the chamber A, B,
with an air-tight trap covering or hopper at the top, which can be
closed when the peat is charged into the chamber, and also to provide a
main pipe C, Figure 1, and C, R, Figure 2, which will carry off and
condense the watery and hydrocarbon vapours. The carbonic oxide gas
mixed with hydrocarbon gases and nitrogen, which will also pass through
this main, may be passed into a receiver or gas holder, and will form a
considerable source of economy by providing the whole or a large
portion of the fuel needed in the developement of steam power required
upon the works.
The carbonic oxide or flame is admitted at S, Figures 1 and 2, but I
have not shewn any furnace arrangement for its production, all that is
necessary for that purpose being that a blast of air be forced through a
deep or thick mass of incandescent fuel by any of the usual and well-
known methods of creating such a forced blast or draught. The carbonic
oxide thus produced should be carried direct from the furnace in which
it is generated into the chamber D, E, through the flue S, Figure 1.
The charring power of this flame will be greatly increased by placing
perforated air pipes of fire-clay or cast iron in the flue S in order that
just so much air may be thrown in fine jets amongst the red-hot
carbonic oxide as will suffice to convert the greater part of that gas into
carbonic anhydride. The flue S may also be lined with a tubular shell
of cast iron, or better still, fire-clay perforated with a large number of
small holes for the admission of the aforesaid supply of air to the
carbonic oxide. A similar acrating of carbonic oxide is equally appli-
cable in the case of the rotary retort herein-before described.
If a free draught or a blast of air is admitted at S the peat in tho
chamber A, B, will burn when ignited, and this means may also be
employed, though rather wasteful, for charring the contents, because

page_text: the burning of the peat at the bottom will generate enough heat to char
the superincumbent mass.
This coking oven affords also a good means of coking into a powdered
state any powdered coal which it may be deemed desirable to consolidate
by raw peat according to this Patent, or according to either. of my
Letters Patent of the present year, Numbered 749 and 1560, which both
relate to the smelting of iron.
In order to utilize the oven for the latter purpose it is best to work
the powdered coal or colliery duff into lumps by means of chalk, or lime,
or clay, or with these ingredients, or any two of them, intermixed in a
thoroughly incorporated state. When these lumps are coked in this
oven like the peat sods, as hercin-before described, the coked lumps aro
casily reduced again to powder by the rocking fire-bars or ribbed rollers,
because the presence of the intermixed earthy matter prevents the gluing
together of the coal dust, no matter how bituminous it may be. If the
lime or chalk and clay used for this purpose are thoroughly blended
together in the well-known proportions employed in making Portland or
hydraulic cement the result of the last mentioned coking will bo
powdered coke and powdered hydraulic cement, both of which may be
used as prescribed in the Specification of my Letters Patent numbered
749 of this year. In this case however it is not expedient to quench
with water the hot mass of dust on its falling through the escape
trap E, F. When however the consolidation of this powdered coke is
to be dependent either upon peat, as herein-before described, or by
plastic clay with crushed iron ore, as described in the Specification of
my Letters Patent numbered 1560 of this year, it is better to use the
chalk or lime alone, or the clay by itself, because the wetting of the
product will not then cause the mass of dust to harden into stoncy lumps
of concrete. If however the consolidation of this dust is immediately
proceeded with the wetting will not matter in any case.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the best means
known to me for carrying it into effect, what I claim is,→
Firstly. The consolidation of powdered coal or peat charcoal by
incorporating it with raw or "green" peat in a plastic state.
Secondly. Effecting this consolidation by raw or green peat with the
addition of a thin cream or "slip," of plastic clay.

page_text: Thirdly. Incorporating the broken or powdered peat charcoal with
raw natural peat whilst such charcoal is in a red hot state, as described.
"
Fourthly. The consolidation of crushed iron ore, sand, silicious earth
or clay and lime, together with coal or coke dust, or with peat charcoal,
hot or cold, by means of raw or green" peat in such proportions,
incorporated together,. that each Jump so consolidated shall contain the
requisite ingredients of a smelting furnace charge, with or without
enough fuel in its composition to provide the required smelting heat
when acted on by the blast of an ordinary smelting furnace.
Fifthly. The smelting of the latter metallurgical conglomerate citler
by the heat derived from the combustion of the powdered fuel
incorporated therein, or by means of a separate supply of fucl in lumps
interstratified with the lumps of conglomerate in the smelting furnace.
Sixthly. The smelting of this conglomerate by means of the "duplex
furnace" described in the Specification of my Letters Patent numbered
749 of this year.
Seventhly. The use as fuel generally, but especially as fuel for the
smelting or making of pig iron, or for the puddling of iron, of peat
charcoal, or coal or coke dust consolidated into masses, without the
intermixture of iron ore, by means of raw or "green" peat, as described.
Eighthly. The coking of consolidated masses of peat charcoal or coal
dust, with or without crushed iron ore and fluxing materials incorporated
therewith, the consolidation of such masses before coking having been
effected by means of raw natural peat, as described; also the addition of
sulphate or chloride of aluminum incorporated in solution with the peat
before such consolidation and coking are effected when powdered fuel
unmixed with lime is so consolidated and coked.
Ninethly. The use of rotary charring furnaces or retorts for the coking
of powdered peat or powdered coal so as to prevent its forming solid
masses, as described.
Tenthly. The use of the vertical stationary coking oven with rocking
fire-bars or revolving roller firc-bars, as described, for the purpose of
charring peat or of coking coal dust consolidated into lumps by means
of lime or clay, or by means of both lime and clay together, so as to
obtain a charcoal or coke in a powdered state, with or without the

page_text: .
saving of the volatile hydrocarbons, substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whercof, I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of
September, in the year of our Lord 1874.