IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PEAT AND PEAT CHARCOAL, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Whieldon, of 190, Westminster Bridge
Road, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, William Bennett Hays,
of Yew Villas, Ealing, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
and Joseph Judge Hays, of Hertingfordbury, in the County of
Hertford, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PREPARATION OF PEAT AND PEAT CHARCOAL, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT
PURPOSE."
Scaled the 16th January 1872, and dated the 10th August 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Whieldon,
William Bennett Hays, and Joseph Judge Hays at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th
August 1871.
5 We, WILLIAM WHIELDON, of 190, Westminster Bridge Road, in the
County of Surrey, Engineer, WILLIAM BENNETT HAYS, of Yew Villas,
Ealing, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and JOSEPH JUDGE
HAYS, of Hertingfordbury, in the County of Hertford, Gentleman, do

page_text: hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PREPARATION OF PEAT AND PEAT CHARCOAL, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT
PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to improved processes for pressing, moulding,
drying, and otherwise preparing peat and peat charcoal, and to apparatus
employed in those processes.
The peat is first triturated in a pug mill, from which it descends into
a pressing cylinder open on one side for its admission. In this cylinder
a piston is caused to move to and fro. As the piston is withdrawn the
triturated peat enters the space so left free, and a regulating flap or
valve may be employed to govern the quantity admitted. The piston in
its return stroke forces the peat forward into a straining chamber. This
chamber has perforated sides, which are lined with fine wire gauze or
other porous fabric. The pressure of the piston acting on the peat in
this chamber forces a large proportion of the moisture out of it, and
renders it more dense. The straining chamber has a mouth opposite to
the piston, and in front of this mouth is mounted a moulding cylinder
having passages through it transversely to the axis. This cylinder is
caused to revolve, having its movement timed to that of the piston, so
that it presents a passage to the mouth of the straining chamber at the
time that the piston makes its forward stroke. Each of the passages in
the moulding cylinder is fitted with a sliding plunger, which is per-
mitted to move a certain distance between stops in the passage. As the
piston moves forward a portion of the peat in the straining chamber is
forced into the passage of the cylinder, the plunger in that passage
being thus caused to slide, and so to extrude the peat which had been
previously forced into the other end of the passage. Thus as the
cylinder revolves successive pieces of the compressed peat are delivered
moulded from its passages, and are cleared of the cylinder when
necessary by a fixed scraper or wire fitted against the periphery of the
cylinder. The pieces of peat thus extruded drop on to a perforated
travelling band or net, or a moving grating, which carries them onwards
along a drying chamber. In constructing such a moving grating we
prefer to make it consist of fixed bars with moveable bars arranged
between them. The moveable bars are connected to cranks or eccentrics
on revolving shafts, in such a manner that during every revolution of
these shafts they a caused to rise between the fixed bars, and thereby
to lift the pieces of peat resting on them, and to carry these pieces

page_text: onwards, again descending between the fixed bars and leaving the
pieces of peat resting thereon in advanced positions. There may be
several such travelling bands or nets, or several such moving gratings
arranged successively below each other, and moving alternately in
opposite directions, so that as the pieces of peat are delivered from the
upper level they drop on to the next lower level, and so on successively,
and are thus carried to and fro several times throughout the length
of the drying chamber. We supply this drying chamber with a current
of heated air, which may either enter at the lowest level, and be caused
by diaphragms to circulate throughout the different levels, or which may
be admitted by numerous apertures, so as to be uniformly diffused
throughout the chamber.
We prefer, however, to admit the chief
supply of heated air at the point which the peat last reaches, so as to
ensure its action on the least moist material.
Instead of the drying chamber and apparatus described above we
sometimes make use of the following construction:-The pieces of peat
extruded from the moulding cylinder are arranged on trays having
grated, perforated, or network bottoms. These trays charged with the
peat are placed successively on the top of a drying chamber, at the
sides of which are mounted a succession of wheels, toothed somewhat
like ratchet wheels. Flanges projecting from the trays rest on the teeth
of those wheels, and as the wheels are made slowly or intermittently to
revolve each tray is successively disengaged from the teeth of one set of
wheels and engaged on those of the next lower set. Thus the trays
placed on the top of the chamber slowly descend in succession to the
bottom, a current of hot air being made to pass up through them during
their descent. When a tray reaches the bottom it is removed. The
pieces of peat when removed from the drying chamber arc, by pre-
ference, stacked in sheds or bins to be seasoned. These sheds or bins
are made with louvres, so as to admit air to pass freely through them,
but to exclude rain, and we find it convenient to arrange them with a
tram road at the top and one at the bottom, so that the peat conveyed to
them in trucks along the upper tram road is delivered into them by
slipping the sides or bottoms of the trucks, and peat is removed from
them by trucks on the lower tram road, which are charged by slipping
the bottoms of the sheds or bins immediately above them.
For carbonising or converting peat into charcoal we distil the gases
from the seasoned peat in retorts constructed and worked as follows:-
:―

page_text: There are double doors fitted at each end of the retort, having a space
between them, so that the inner door is kept hot, and the tar produced
from the distillation does not condense thereon, as it usually does on
doors cooled by exposure to the outer air. A cradle, the bottom of
which consists of a series of flaps hung so as to fall downwards when
free, is placed on a platform at one end of the retort, the flaps being
then closed, and is charged with peat. It is then slid or rolled into the
retort, and the peat is therein subjected to the necessary heat. When it
is sufficiently carbonised the doors at the opposite end of the retort arc
opened and the cradle is drawn out, the flaps dropping down as it is
removed from the retort, and so delivering the charcoal into smothering
boxes arranged below.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Whieldon, William Bennett Hays, and
Joseph Judge Hays in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th
February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
WHIELDON, of 190, Westminster Bridge Road, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, WILLIAM BENNETT HAYS, of Yew Villas, Ealing, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and JOSEPH JUDGE HAYS, of
Hertingfordbury, in the County of Hertford, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said William Whieldon, William Bennett Hays,
and Joseph Judge Hays, Her special licence that we, the said William
Whieldon, William Bennett Hays, and Joseph Judge Hays, our exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said William
Whieldon, William Bennett Hays, and Joseph Judge Hays, our exe-
cutors, 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

page_text: IN THE PREPARATION OF PEAT AND PEAT CHARCOAL, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT
PURPOSE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Whieldon, William Bennett Hays, and Joseph Judge Hays, our exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Joseph Judge Hays, on behalf of
myself and the said William Whieldon and William Bennett Hays, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Our Invention relates to improved processes for pressing, moulding,
drying, and otherwise preparing peat and peat charcoal, and to apparatus
employed in those processes.
The peat is first triturated in a pug mill, from which it descends into
a pressing cylinder open on the sides for its admission. In this cylinder
a piston is caused to move to and fro. As the piston is withdrawn the
triturated peat enters the space so left free, and a regulating flap or
valve may be employed to govern the quantity admitted. The piston
in its return stroke forces the peat forward into a straining chamber;
this chamber has perforated sides which are lined with fine wire gauze
or other porous fabric. The pressure of the piston acting on the peat
in this chamber forces a large proportion of the moisture out of it,
and renders it more dense. The straining chamber has a mouth opposite
to the piston, and in front of this mouth is mounted a moulding cylinder
having passages through it transversely to the axis. This cylinder is
caused to revolve, having its movement timed to that of the piston,
so that it presents a passage to the mouth of the straining chamber
at the time that the piston makes its forward stroke. Each of the
passages in the moulding cylinder is fitted with a sliding plunger, which
is permitted to move a certain distance between stops in the passage. As
the piston moves forward a portion of the peat in the straining chamber is
forced into the passage of the cylinder, the plunger in that passage being

page_text: thus caused to slide and so to extrude the peat which had been previously
forced into the other end of the passage. Thus as the cylinder revolves
successive pieces of the compressed peat are delivered moulded from
its passages, and are cleared of the cylinder when necessary by a fixed
scraper or wire fitted against the periphery of the cylinder. The pieces
of peat thus extruded drop on to a perforated travelling band or net,
or a moving grating which carries them onwards along a drying|
chamber. In constructing such a moving grating we prefer to make
it consist of fixed bars with moveable bars arranged between them.
The moveable bars are connected to cranks or excentrics on revolving
shafts in such a manner that during every revolution of these shafts
they are caused to rise between the fixed bars and thereby to lift the
pieces of peat resting on them and to carry these pieces onwards,
again descending between the fixed bars, and leaving the pieces of
peat resting thereon in advanced positions. There may be several such
travelling bands or nets, or several such moving gratings arranged
successively below each other and moving alternately in opposite
directions, so that as the pieces of peat are delivered from the upper
level they drop on to the next lower level, and so on successively, and
are thus carried to and fro several times throughout the length of the
drying chamber. We supply this drying chamber with a current of
heated air which may either enter at the lowest level and be caused
by diaphragms to circulate throughout the different levels or which may
be admitted by numerous apertures so as to be uniformly diffused
throughout the chamber. We prefer, however, to admit the chief
supply of heated air at the point which the peat last reaches, so as to
ensure its action on the least moist material.
Instead of the drying chamber and apparatus described above we
sometimes make use of the following construction:-The pieces of
peat extruded from the moulding chamber are arranged on trays having
grated, perforated, or network bottoms. These trays charged with the
peat are placed successively on the top of a drying chamber, at the
sides of which are mounted a succession of wheels toothed somewhat
like ratchet wheels. Flanges projecting from the trays rest on the teeth
of those wheels, and as the whcels are made slowly or intermittently
to revolve each tray is successively disengaged from the teeth of one
set of wheels and engaged on those of the next lower set. Thus the
trays placed on the top of the chamber slowly descend in succession

page_text: to the bottom, a current of hot air being made to pass up through them
during their descent. When a tray reaches the bottom it is removed.
The pieces of peat when removed from the drying chamber are by
preference stacked in shods or bins to be seasoned. These sheds or bins
are made with louvres, so as to admit air to pass freely through them
but to exclude rain, and we find it convenient to arrange them with a
tram road at the top and one at the bottom, so that the peat conveyed
to them in trucks along the upper tram road is delivered into them by
slipping the sides or bottoms of the trucks, and peat is removed from
them by trucks on the lower tram road which are charged by slipping
the bottoms of the sheds or bins immediately above them.
:--
For carbonizing or converting peat into charcoal we distil the gases
from the seasoned peat in retorts constructed and worked as follows:-
There are double doors fitted at each end of the retort having a space
between them, so that the inner door is kept hot and the tar produced
from the distillation does not condense thercon as it usually does on
doors cooled by exposure to the outer air. A cradle, the bottom of
which consists of a series of flaps hung so as to fall downwards when
free, is placed on a platform at one end of the retort, the flaps being
then closed and is charged with peat. It is then slid or rolled into
the retort and the peat is therein subjected to the necessary heat.
When it is sufficiently carbonized the doors at the opposite end of the
retort are opened and the cradle is drawn out, the flaps dropping down
as it is removed from the retort and so delivering the charcoal into
smothering boxes arranged below.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, Sheet I., represents a longitudinal section of the machine
for pressing and straining peat. The peat having triturated in a pug-
mill of ordinary construction to a pulpy consistence is delivered into
a feeding chamber A. This chamber is of cylindrical form; a vertical
shaft z driven by the band and rigger b, b, or other convenient gearing
is caused to revolve within this chamber. On this shaft are fixed at
intervals inclined blades a, a, and in the spaces between these blades
there are fixed blades c, c, projecting inwards from the periphery of
"
D

page_text: revolving within the chamber. At the bottom of the chamber A. there
is a cylinder & having slots in its sides d' opening into the chamber A.
A piston B is caused to reciprocate in this cylinder by the action of the
toggle joints e, e, worked by a rod f from a crank g. This crank is
fixed on a shaft D, on which is fixed a wheel J geared to a pinion K
on a prime moving shaft driven by engine or any other suitable power.
The piston B might be worked by other suitable mechanism or directly
from the piston of a steam cylinder. When the piston is drawn back
peat pulp from the chamber A enters the cylinder d in front of the
piston B, and the return stroke of the piston pushes this charge of peat
forward into the cavity C. The position of the piston at its forward
stroke is indicated by the dotted lines B'. A passage d² leads from the
cavity C to a safety valve loaded with such weight as may be necessary
for the compression of the peat, which when the pressure is exceeded
will open for the issue of a portion of the peat pulp so as to relieve
the apparatus from undue strain. The upper part of the cavity C
is fitted with a valve which rises to permit the passage of peat
pulp from the cavity C into the straining chamber E, but which
during the back stroke of the piston B closes against the return of the
pulp from E to C. To relieve the valve h of a part of the pressure duc
to the compression of the pulp in the straining chamber E it is pre-
ferably made with a large stem i passing through a stuffing box, so
that the pressure acts only on the annular area of the valve surrounding
the stem i. The straining chamber E consists of a strong casing, the
sides of which have a number of grooves or channels j communicating
by holes with the exterior. These grooves or channels are covered inside
with several thicknesses or layers of wire gauze, the layer next the
interior of the chamber E being of fine mesh and the other layers
coarser as they approach the grooves. The coarser gauze layers being
thus supported on the sides of the casing serve to support the finer
layers against the pressure of the pulp within the chamber E. The
pulp is gradually forced onwards along the chamber E by the action
of the piston B under considerable pressure, which causes a large portion
of the moisture to exude from the pulp through the gauze linings and
to pass away by the channels j. The chamber E is preferably enclosed
in a water trough H, so that when the machine is not in use the gauze
linings are always kept wet and thus the clogging of the meshes by
pulp drying on them is prevented.

page_text: A moulding cylinder F is mounted at the mouth of the straining
chamber E. This cylinder has two transverse passages each fitted with
a sliding plunger k, of which a side view is represented at Fig. 2. Each
plunger is notched, as shewn in that Figure, so that the one crosses
the other and the ends of the notch in each form stops to prevent its
being forced too far in either direction. The cylinder F being turned
on its axis so as to present the end of one of its plungers / to the
mouth of the chamber E, the strained pulp is forced from that chamber
into the passage of the cylinder, the plunger k receding so as to leave
space for admission of the pulp into a certain length of the passage
determined by the length of the notch in the plunger. The recession
of the plunger extrudes the piece of strained pulp which had been
previously forced into the opposite end of the passage; and thus during
cach revolution of the cylinder F there are four pieces of strained peat
pulp extruded in the form of bricks from the successive passages of
the cylinder. An inclined scraper G fixed so as to bear against the
periphery of the cylinder causes these bricks to detach themselves and
slide down the scraper.
Fig. 3 represents in clevation an apparatus for turning the moulding
cylinder F one quarter round at intervals so as to leave each of its
four passages successively at rest opposite the mouth of the straining
chamber during several strokes of the piston B. In this Figure / is
the shaft of the moulding cylinder having a ratchet wheel m fixed
thereon. A bent lever with two arms " and o is mounted on the shaft
free to turn on it. One of these arms carries a weight p and a spring
pawl taking into the teeth of the ratchet wheel, the other arm is con-
nected by a rod q to a radius q', so that the rod q moves as the blade
of a parallel ruler. From this rod a horn r projects downwards; u is a
rigger mounted on a shaft in the same line with but separate from
the shaft and driven by a band from a rigger on the driving shaft D.
The rigger has an arm & provided with a friction roller t, which as
the rigger u revolves in the direction of the arrow bears against the
horn and by its continued revolution moves this horn and the bent
lever n, o, to the position indicated by the dotted lines, the pawl on
the arm n rising over the ratchet teeth and leaving the shaft / and
moulding cylinder at rest. When the arm & passes the position marked
by the dotted lines at s¹ its roller moves clear of the horn and the

page_text: weight p then raised to the position p¹ descends, the pawl on the arm n
moving the ratchet wheel one quarter of a revolution.
Fig. 4 represents a longitudinal section of the apparatus for drying
the bricks of peat extruded from the moulding cylinder F, which with
the straining chamber E is represented in this Figure to a small scale.
M is the drying chamber in which there are arranged two or more
travelling bands or nets L supported at intervals on rollers and caused
to move slowly by rotation imparted from any convenient part of the
straining machinery to the polygonal rollers at the ends. The two
levels of the drying chamber are separated by a diaphragm N. The
lower level opens into a chamber P supplied with hot air, which may
be the waste products of combustion from the steam-engine furnace or
from the furnaces of the carbonizing retorts. Or there may be a separate
furnace R for supplying heated air and products of combustion to the
lower level of the drying chamber. The hot air or gases travel through
the chamber as indicated by the arrows, escaping finally by a flue or
pipe which may be in communication with a shaft or exhausting
fan so as to secure the necessary draught. The bricks of peat extruded
from the moulding cylinder F slide down the inclined scraper G and
are received successively on the upper travelling band or net L; by it
they are carried along to its end, where they drop from it on to the
lower travelling band or net, by which they are carried on, and from
which they finally fall into a truck placed for their reception in the
chamber P. By this arrangement it will be seen that the hottest of
the air or gases supplied to the drying chamber act first on the
peat bricks which have been longest exposed to the drying influence.
Instead of only two levels of chamber and travelling nets, as represented
in the Figure, there may be several levels acting as above described, as
may be readily understood.
Figure 5, Sheet II., represents a section, and Fig. 6, Sheet II., an a
external elevation of another form of apparatus for drying the peat
bricks. Hot air or gas is supplied by a pipe W to the lower part of
the chamber and spread therein by a diaphragm or baffle plate X. The
peat bricks are laid on grated trays s, s, which have flanges at their
ends resting on the ratchet teeth of wheels T; these wheels are all 3
made to revolve slowly together by means of cranks U and connecting
rods V actuated by worm wheels worked by hand or by other suitable

page_text: gearing. Each of the trays S is thus made gradually to descend from
the tooth of the one wheel T to the tooth of the wheel next below, and
so on till it reaches the bottom of the chamber, whence it is removed
by a door Y. During the descent of the trays the hot air or gas passes
through them and dries the peat carried upon them.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what
manner it is to be performed, we claim,-
First. The use of a pressing cylinder and piston in combination with
a straining chamber for the purpose of compressing peat and straining
moisture therefrom, substantially as described with reference to Fig. 1,
Sheet I.
Second. The combination with the said pressing and straining
apparatus of a moulding cylinder and drying apparatus, substantially
as described with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Sheet I.
Third. The use of an apparatus for drying peat, substantially as
described with reference to Figs. 5 and 6 of Sheet II.
Fourth. The use of retorts for carbonizing peat made with double
doors at each end, and the mode of charging such retorts with
peat and discharging the charred peat, substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Judge Hays, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Eighth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.