CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF PREPARING THE VEGETABLE MATERIAL OF PEAT-MOSS OR BOG, 80, 46 TO RENDER: IT APPLICABLE TO SEVERAL USEFUL PURPOSES, AND PARTICULARLY FOR FURL which
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WYB WILLIAMS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Gentleman, send
greeting..
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of November, in the first year of Her reign,
did, for, Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles. Wye Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others..as I, the said Charles Wye Williams, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at. any...time, agree with, and no others, from time to come
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MEANS OF PREPARING THE VEGETABLE MATERIAL OF PEAT-MOSS OR BOG,
80, 46 TO RENDER: IT APPLICABLE TO SEVERAL USEFUL PURPOSES, AND PARTICULARLY
FOR FURL in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the
said. Charles: Wye Williams, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is, to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being had thereto, will more fully and at larg
anncar.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Wye Williams, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described in and by the following description thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists,―
Firstly, in a novel or peculiar mode or method, not hitherto adopted or
practised, for pressing the water or aqueous parts out of peat-moss or bog
earth.
Secondly, in the mixing or incorporating the peat-moss or bog earth with
the following ingredients; namely, sand finely powdered or ground, limestones
powdered or ground, coal slack, or quick or hot lime; but I do not confine
myself to any particular quantity or proportion of these ingredients separately
or together, the quantities being varied according to the quality of the peat-
moss or bog earth, or to the use to which it is to be applied.
And, thirdly, in a mode of breaking asunder or destroying the vegetable
formations and fibrous texture of the peat bog by the use of a peculiar descrip-
tion of iron cylinders or rollers, as hereafter described.
And in order to give the best information for carrying my Invention into
effect, I give the following description of the process and means I employ;
namely: I subject the peat-moss or bog earth to a great degree of pressure,
as hereafter described, either first in its natural state, as taken out of the bog,
or secondly, after it has been reduced to a pulpy state in the manner com-
monly used in Ireland in preparing peat-moss or bog earth for fuel, or what
is generally termed hand turf, by kneading, tramping, cutting, bruising, or
mashing the same, for the purpose of breaking asunder and separating its
vegetable fibres, texture, formations, and tenacity; or thirdly, after it has been
bruised or ground, by means of the common mortar mill used for mixing
sand, water, and lime, or by the use of the cylinders or rollers hereafter
described, or any other of the well known milling or bruising processes. One
object I obtain by such bruising, or incorporation, or mixing, being to give to
the fuel a greater durability in burning, and a greater power of retaining
heat, and by it is prevented from cracking or splitting when dry; and further,
that by means of such ingredients a greater facility is given for the escape
of the water when under pressure, any of such ingredients acting as a
percolater in aiding the passage or filtration of the water from the interior
of the peat to its surfaces.
Further, my Invention consists in the use and application of a peculiar
description of iron cylinders or rollers mounted on horizontal shafts after the
manner of the rollers of the mortar mill, which rollers or cylinders, the use of

page_text: which I claim exclusively, being constructed of cylindrical plates of iron per-
forated with holes, the object and operation of which being to force the peat
as they roll over it to pass through those holes, and by which operation the
vegetable formations and fibrous texture is expeditiously torn asunder, destroyed,
or broken, and which is preferable to any of the grinding processes by heavy
rollers like that of the mortar mill. These cylinders or rollers I construct of
plates of wrought or cast iron mounted on spokes, or resembling those of a
common carriage wheel, and which plates are closely perforated with holes
sufficiently large and numerous, the cylinders I use, and which I prefer,
being about four feet diameter, with plates about eight to ten inches broad and
about half an inch thick, the holes being about three quarters of an inch to an
inch in diameter, and about one inch asunder, although I do not confine myself
or my Invention to such sized rollers or cylinders, or to such sized holes or
spaces. And note, that the number of cylinders or rollers may be worked con-
veniently by horses in the way of a corn-thrashing mill, or by other power, and
may be increased to any number in proportion to the quantity of peat required
to be so bruised or mixed by increasing the length or number of horizontal
shafts on which they turn.
And further my Invention consists in the mode, method, or process of
pressing the peat-moss or bog earth by placing the peat-moss or bog earth to
be pressed between layers of other matter or materials, as hereafter described,
which layers or materials I term recipients, and into which (both peat and
recipients being under equal pressure) the water is forced from out of the
interior of the peat or bog earth, and which is itself thus prevented from
escaping with the water, as is usually the case when peat alone is subjected to
a high degree of pressure without such recipients in vessels pierced with holes
intended for the escape of the water from its interior or middle parts, the
water forcing the finer particles of the peat with it at the edges or through
such holes. These recipients, of which I claim the use and Invention, consist
of a layer or stratum of any substance capable of receiving water while
under pressure, and allowing it to pass through or from it; that is to say, of
receiving the water from the extended surface of the peat which is in imme-
diate contact with the surface of the recipients, and passing it out from such
recipients. These layers of materials or recipients may be made of a plate or
plates or sheets of tin, iron, or other metal pierced closely with small holes
like a cullender, woven wirework, coarse hempen or woollen cloth, layers of
fibrous materials which will allow the water to pass through them, and between
each of which pierced plates or layers, though not absolutely essential to the
process, a piece of woollen or other cloth may be introduced, or a sprinkling of

page_text: coarse sand, with or without such cloths. The object in introducing such cloths or
sand, or other such like matter, being to encrease the internal spaces or interstices
into which the water is received, and thus enlarging its capability of receiving and
freely passing the water which it has received from the peat or bog earth. A simple
and cheap recipient also may be made by a layer of sand aloue (coarse sand is
best), and confined in sacking or other cloth; and when more than one layer
of peat is required to be pressed at ono operation, the peat and sand or other
recipients to be placed in alternate layers. But I do not mean to confine myself
or my Invention to those peculiar kinds or number of recipients which I have
mentioned, but to the uses of other kind of recipients by which the samo
object can be effected, namely, the giving a direction to the water in its being
pressed out of the peat, so that it has to pass through such recipient or by
means of the same, and by which I effect my purpose of preventing the
escape of the pulpy or minute particles of the peat with the water, as has been
found to be the case in all expedients hitherto adopted whenever a high degree
of pressure is used, and this modo or process of pressure, and the use of the
recipients alternating with the peat, has this peculiar advantage over all other
modes by which it has been attempted to press the water out of peat, that by
it the water may be pressed out of the peat as taken from the bog, and the
highest possible degree of pressure used until the peat is become solid and
hard, without the necessity of confining it in cylinders or other vessels, or even
in a cloth of any kind, the water preferring to pass away, and finding a readier
means of escape from the surface of the several layers of peat into the
recipients rather than out at the edges or through any holes left for its escape
in the vessels in which it has been usually confined for pressure, so that no
inconvenient expansion of the peat will take place under the operation of the
pressure, provided the first operation of the pressing be not made too suddenly
or rapidly, and during which the great portion of the water escapes. This
mode of condensing the peat has also the advantage that when it is pressed it
is in the best state, condition, and thickness for coking, and thus forming tho
most valuable description of fuel for all workings of iron and steel, and which
is one of the other useful purposes to which my Invention is applicable.
Another of such purposes being the formation or cutting of such peat after or
during the pressure into sizes suitable for being used as bricks or other
purposes, and for which purposes the mixing or incorporating the peat with
sand or line, as before mentioned, is useful, the mode I adopt being the
placing the peat to be pressed in layers alternately with the recipients under
an hydraulic screw or other press. It should be observed that the thinner the
several layers of peat are, the more rapidly will be the operation of pressing be

page_text: performed, but I have found the most convenient thickness for such layers to
be from three inches to four inches, and so as to form a body after pres-
sure of about one inch to one inch and a half thickness. And note, where
more than two or three layers of peat are pressed af óne and the same opera-
tion, but which number of layers may be increased as far as the range of the
press will admit, it will be advisable, and in case the peat be very soft and
pulpy, or after the operation of mashing or pulverizing already alluded to has
been used, it will be necessary, to separate each alternate layer of peat and its
two recipients by a sheet of plate iron or strong planks, the object being to
obtain a uniform thickness in the mass or series of layers to be pressed, and
thus to secure an even vertical pressure and avoid the slipping sideways of.the
several layers thus piled on each other.
And, whereas the process of making fuel from peat by mashing, bruising,
or mixing with other ingredients and pressing the same has been practised
before, I make no claim of Invention to the said processes. But I specially and
exclusively claim as my Invention,―
First, the mixing or combining the peat with the articles I have enume-
rated, which, when combined and incorporated with the pent, act as a
percolater during the process of pressure, and by which the water is as it were
filtered and enabled to escape from the peat with greater ease,. and. which
ingredients also enable the peat in the act of burning to retain heat much
longer than when prepared in the usual way, and without such ingredients.
Secondly, I claim the exclusive use of the mode of pressure I have described,
by the use or interposition of what I call recipients, namely, that which is
described as being placed in alternate layers with the peat, of whatever those
recipients may be formed, and into which or through which the water is first
received, passed, or pressed from the upper and under extended surfaces of
the peat, both peat and recipients being at the same time subjected to the
same degree of pressure; and by the interposition of which recipients, not only
is the escape of the water out of the peat facilitated, but by which the highest
degree of pressure, even as high as one thousand tons, may be used without
endangering the escape of any portion of the peat itself, as the peat will not
pass into or through the recipient although the water will; and, further, by
which I so reduce the bulk of the peat, and condense it into hard blocks or
cakes, as to enable it at once to be laid up for use, the operation of the atmo-
sphere being sufficient in a short time to remove any remaining moisture, and
render it fit for use. And,
Thirdly, I claim the exclusive use and application, to the bruising, separating,
or breaking the vegetable fibres and texture of peat bog, of the cylinders or

page_text: rollers pierced with holes, and through which holes the peat is forced as they
roll over the peat, such vegetable fibres and texture being effectually and
expeditiously destroyed or separated by the passage of the peat through such
holes, and cutting or tearing the same by the edges of such holes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wye Williams, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, One thousand eight hundred