A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING AND CONDENSING PEAT FOR FUEL WITHOUT MOULDING OR PRESSING, AND ALSO FOR A NEW AND IMPROVED OVEN FOR MAKING PEAT CHARCOAL
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Box, of Newton House, Newton Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW
AND IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING AND CONDENSING
PEAT FOR FUEL WITHOUT MOULDING OR PRESSING, AND ALSO FOR A NEW AND
IMPROVED OVEN FOR MAKING PEAT CHARCOAL."
Sealed the 26th July 1872, and dated the 30th January 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Box at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th January 1872.
I, JOHN Box, of Newton House, Newton Road, in the County of
5 Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for " A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING
AND CONDENSING PEAT FOR FUEL WITHOUT MOULDING OR PRESSING, AND ALSO FOR A
NEW AND IMPROVED OVEN FOR MAKING PEAT CHARCOAL," to be as follows:-
"
The first part of my Invention for preparing and condensing peat is as

page_text: follows: The natural affinity of the particles of bog peat to adhere
together and form a solid substance having almost all the properties of
the best pit coal with the great advantage of being almost entirely free
from sulphur, such particles being deprived or freed from all extraneous
and foreign matters, being well known to me,
the object of my Inven-
tion is to effect this disintegration and separation of the particles of peat
from all foreign and extraneous matters with economy of labour and
with the greatest despatch.
First. I employ a steam engine or other motive power to set in motion
an elevator fitted with scoops or buckets, to lift the raw peat which has
been brought from the bog and thrown into a hollow reservoir placed at
the foot of the elevator up to the level of a hopper disposed in an
inclined plane, so that the raw peat may fall into the body of a machine
or mill, which is a modification of a machine or mill well known as
Carr's disintegrator. This disintegrator, which has been patented by Mr.
Carr, consists of a series of four strong cylindrical cages of various sizes,
formed of bars with open spaces of from three to four inches between
them, arranged concentrically one within another around and parallel
with the shafts, and rotated therewith in contrary direction to one
another by means of an open and crossed strap.
Second. I so arrange a waterproof envelope or tank, within which the
disintegrator works, so that I can partially fill it with water, which is
supplied by a pump worked by the same power which moves the elevator
and turns the cylindrical cages of the Carr's disintegrator. The size and
force of the disintegrator, the supply of raw peat by the elevator, and of
water by the pump are so regulated that the peat, torn to pieces and
beaten by the bars of the cylindrical cages of the disintegrator, is mixed
with the water to about the consistency of paper pulp. The supply of
peat is continuous, as is also the working of the pump and the movement
of the disintegrator, so that the flow of the pulp from the disintegrator is
continuous. The pulp flowing from the disintegrator is conducted by a
wide conduit or drain of wood or metal with a slight fall to the surface
of a kind of sieve, which may be made of osiers or other pliable wood, or
of wire or perforated metal plates. The pulp falling through the sieve,
which is kept clear of roots and pieces of wood by a workman with a
rake, the pulp is deprived of light ligneous matters, and flows into reser-
voirs of very considerable superficial surface, but surrounded with low

page_text: The
walls not exceeding two feet in height, which may be made of rough
planks. The bottom of these reservoirs, each of which is of a size to
receive the pulp made in one day of twelve hours; the size therefore of
cach reservoir varies with the quantity of pulp which the mill or disin-
tegrator is capable of making in twelve hours. There should be twelve
of these reservoirs, all of the same size and all of them most thoroughly
drained, so that any water which leaves the pulp may run off from it
immediately. To effect this drainage I place rows of draining pipes,
with small holes in their circumference, in straight lines from end to end
of the series of reservoirs, about 18 inches below the bottoms, the pipes
having a slight inclination towards and having their outlet in a ditch at
the end of the series of reservoirs. Over the pipes I lay about 8 inches
of small stones or shingle, and on the shingle I lay pieces of the turf
cut from the surface of the peat bog, and over this again I place any
coarse kind of matting, one kind of which is very cheaply made from a
species of grass which is almost always found in peat bogs. The pulp
should not run into the reservoirs to a greater depth than 9 inches.
sand and stones fall to the bottom of the pulp as soon as it is run into
the reservoirs, and the pulp is therefore completely free from extraneous
matters; the particles of peat or decayed vegetable matter formed of
decayed aqueous plants only remains. The water leaves the peat pulp
very rapidly, and in fine warm weather, when there is evaporation from
the surface as well as draining from the bottom, the pulp will have sunk
five or six inches, and become of the consistency of clay, when prepared
in the pug mill for brick making, in the space of 24 hours. About this
time it is necessary to divide the bed of pulp into pieces of a convenient
size for removal, which may be effected in various ways by any cutting
instrument, but I make use of a machine or instrument of my Invention,
which cuts 24 oblong squares of the size of an ordinary brick each time
it is pressed or driven into the surface of the now condensed pulp.
The length of time for which the pulp must remain before it is cut
depends therefore on the weather. If it is very hot weather it may
require cutting the day after it is run into the reservoir, but in ordinary
weather it requires three days to drain itself to the depth or thickness of
3 or 4 inches. Within an hour after the pulp is cut it will be observed
that the piéces have shrunk one from the other, and about the fourth
day the pieces will appear like loose bricks lying on the drained surface
of the reservoir. At this time they will most likely be hard enough to '

page_text: and the manufacture of the peat pulp; the exclusive use of Carr's
disintegrator, modified as described, so that it works in sufficient water
to make the pulp of a proper consistency; the regulation of the supply
of peat by the elevator, and of water by the pump; the arrangement by
which the lighter extraneous matters are removed by the pulp falling
upon a sieve as described; the arrangement and drainage of the reser-
voirs;
the invention and use of the cutter; and the method by which I
avoid that the workman walks on the peat when occupied in cutting the
peat bricks.
:
For the purpose of making peat charcoal for fuel or other purposes I
construct an oven consisting, first, of a cylinder of sheet iron rivetted to.
an angle iron at each end, the angle iron forming a flange top and
bottom or at each end of the cylinder, which I usually make about
20 feet in diameter and 4 feet in height. On the top edge or flange of
the first cylinder I place a second cylinder of the same diameter at the
bottom, and with a similar flange the upper and lower end. On the
top of this cylinder I place a third piece, the bottom of which has a
flange of angle iron of the same diameter as the first two cylinders, but
rapidly diminishing in diameter to 6 feet, the upper end being also
rivetted to an angle iron. On the top of all I place a cap, the lower end.
being 6 feet in diameter, and rivetted to an angle iron.. This cap is only
two feet high, closed over the top with rivetted iron plates. The flanges
of angle iron are all of them pierced with corresponding holes, so that
they may be bolted together in at least 8 different places on each pair of
flanges. The oven has 4 openings on each cylinder, and also in the cap,,
at equal distances one from the other, and about one foot square. Each
opening can be closed by an iron door, so that they may be opened or.
shut to cause more or less draught. When in use the oven stands over.
a circular hole dug in the ground of rather smaller diameter than the
oven, with a square opening on one side dug outside the circle, into
which the workmen descend with a ladder. The pieces of peat either
moulded, condensed, or dried, which may be employed to make the
charcoal, are placed in the interior of the hole in the earth and in the
interior of the cylinders by men accustomed to burning charcoal.
1

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Box in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th July 1872.
-
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
Box, of Newton House, Newton Road, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Box, Her special licence that I,
the said John Box, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Box, 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 Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD AND
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING AND CONDENSING PEAT FOR FUEL WITHOUT MOULDING
OR PRESSING, AND ALSO FOR A NEW AND IMPROVED OVEN FOR MAKING PEAT CHAR-
COAL," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Box,
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 vn that T the
Taha D
1

page_text: together and form a solid substance having almost all the properties of
the best pit coal with the great advantage of being almost entirely free
from sulphur, such particles being deprived or freed from all extraneous
and foreign matters, being well known to me, the object of my Inven-.
tion is to effect this disintegration and separation of the particles of peat
from all foreign and extraneous matters with economy of labor and
with the greatest desnatch
the best pit coal with the great advantage of being almost entirely free
from sulphur, such particles being deprived or freed from all extraneous
and foreign matters, being well known to me, the object of my Inven-.
tion is to effect this disintegration and separation of the particles of peat
from all foreign and extraneous matters with economy of labor and
with the greatest despatch.
First. I employ a steam engine or other motive power to set in motion
an elevator fitted with scoops or buckets to lift the raw peat which has
been brought from the bog and thrown into a hollow reservoir placed at
the top of the elevator up to the level of a hopper disposed in an
inclined plane, so that the raw peat may fall into the body of
a machine or mill, which is a modification or mill called a Carr's
disintegrator. This disintegrator, which has been patented by Mr. Carr,
consists of a series of four strong cylindrical cages of various sizes,
formed of bars with open spaces of from 3 to 4 inches between them,
arranged concentrically one within another around and parallel with
the shafts, and rotated therewith in contrary direction to one another by
means of an open and crossed strap.
:
Second. I so arrange a waterproof envelope or tank, within which the
disintegrator works, so that I can partially fill it with water, which is
supplied by a pump worked by the same power which moves the elevator
and turns the cylindrical cages of the Carr's disintegrator. The size and
force of the disintegrator, the supply of raw peat by the elevator, and of
water by the pump are so regulated that the peat, torn to pieces and
beaten by the bars of the cylindrical cages of the disintegrator, is mixed
with the water to about the consistency of paper pulp. The supply of
peat is continuous, as is also the working of the pump and the movement
of the disintegrator, so that the flow of the pulp from the disintegrator is
continuous. The pulp flowing from the disintegrator is conducted by a
wide conduit or drain of wood or metal with a slight fall to the surface
of a kind of sieve, which may be made of osiers or other pliable wood, or´
of wire or perforated metal plates. The pulp falling through the sieve,
which is kept clear of roots and pieces of wood by a workman with a
rake, the pulp is deprived of light ligneous matters, and flows or is
pumped into reservoirs of very considerable superficial surface, but

page_text: surrounded with low walls not exceeding two feet in height, which may
be made of rough planks. The bottom of these reservoirs, each of which
is of a size to receive the pulp made in one day of twelve hours; the
size therefore of each reservoir varies with the quantity of pulp which
the mill or disintegrator is capable of making in twelve hours. There
should be twelve of these reservoirs, all of the same size and all of them
most thoroughly drained, so that any water which leaves the pulp may
run off from it immediately. To effect this drainage I place rows of
draining pipes, with small holes in their circumference, in straight lines
from end to end of the series of reservoirs, about 18 inches below the
bottoms, the pipes having a slight inclination towards and having their
outlet in a ditch at the end of the series of reservoirs. Over the pipes
I lay about 8 inches of small stones or shingle, and on the shingle I lay
pieces of the turf cut from the surface of the peat bog, and over this
again I place any coarse kind of matting, one kind of which is very
cheaply made from a species of grass which is almost always found in
peat bogs. The pulp should not run into the reservoirs to a greater
depth than nine inches. The sand and stones fall to the bottom of the
pulp as soon as it is run into the reservoirs, and the pulp is therefore.
completely free from extraneous matters, the particles of peat or decayed
vegetable matter formed of decayed aqueous plants only remains. The
water leaves. the peat pulp very rapidly, and in fine warm weather,
when there is evaporation from the surface as well as draining from the
bottom, the pulp will have sunk 5 or 6 inches, and become of the con-
sistency of clay, when prepared in the pug mill for brick making, in the
space of twenty-four hours. About this time it is necessary to divide the
bed of pulp into pieces of a convenient size for removal, which may be
effected in various ways by any cutting instrument, but I make use of a
machine or instrument of my Invention, which cuts twenty-four oblong
squares of the size of an ordinary brick each time it is pressed or driven
into the surface of the now condensed pulp. The length of time for
which the pulp must remain before it is cut depends therefore on the
weather. If it is very hot weather it may require cutting the day
after it is run into the reservoir, but in ordinary weather it requires
three days to drain itself to the depth of three or four inches.
Within an hour after the pulp is cut it will be observed that the
pieces have shrunk one from the other, and about the fourth day the
pieces will appear like loose bricks lying on the drained surface of the
"

page_text: •
reservoir. At this time they will most likely be hard enough to be
removed, which is effected by hand labour and with barrows. These
barrows are constructed with shelves of laths, or of thin wood, or iron
plates. When standing to be loaded, the fore part is much higher than
the back, so that when lifted by the man who wheels it the shelves are
nearly on a level, which prevents the bricks slipping and falling one
acainst the other
removed, which is effected by hand labour and with barrows. These
barrows are constructed with shelves of laths, or of thin wood, or iron
plates. When standing to be loaded, the fore part is much higher than
the back, so that when lifted by the man who wheels it the shelves are
nearly on a level, which prevents the bricks slipping and falling one
against the other
The cutter which I have invented is a frame of thin plate iron of an
oblong form and about three inches deep. The frame is an oblong square,
and is thirty-six inches in length and twenty-four inches in width, and is
divided into twenty-four compartments, nine inches in length and four
inches in width, by narrow strips of iron or steel plate of the same depth
as the frame. On the upper side a handle like a spade handle is fixed
to the frame at the four sides, so that the workman can lift. it up and
stamp it down like a barley hummeler, such as is used to remove the
spears or spikes from the end of grains of barley.
The reservoirs are so arranged that the workmen using the cutters
need not walk on the soft pulp. Planks with small flanged wheels at
each end move upon wooden rails placed at convenient distances one
from the other in the reservoirs at a level with the walls or planks
which surround them; thus the workman, pushing himself backwards
a distance of two feet after having cut each row of oblong pieces or
bricks of peat, arrives at length at the end of the reservoir, leaving the
cut bricks in front of him. I find that a man can conveniently stamp
twenty-five blows with the cutter in one minute, therefore can readily
stamp three thousand squares per hour, allowing a liberal time for rest
after an hour actively employed.

page_text: invaluable for smelting and puddling iron, or for melting steel in pots,
and for fuel in general.
I do not claim the known principle of adherence of the particles of
peat when deprived of extraneous matters. I claim the general com-
bination of machinery by which I obtain the condensation of the peat
and the manufacture of the peat pulp; the exclusive use of Carr's
disintegrator, modified as described, so that it works in sufficient water
to make the pulp of a proper consistency; the regulation of the supply
of peat by the elevator, and of water by the pump; the arrangement by
which the lighter extraneous matters are removed by the pulp falling
upon a sieve as described; the arrangement and drainage of the reser-
voirs; the Invention and use of the cutter; and the method by which I
avoid that the workman walks on the peat when occupied in cutting the
peat bricks.
1
The second part of my Invention is the new and improved oven for
making peat charcoal. The oven consists, first, of a cylinder of sheet
iron riveted to an angle iron at each end, the angle iron forming a
flange top and bottom or at each end of the cylinder, which I usually
make about twenty feet in diameter and four feet in height. On the top
edge or flange of the first cylinder I place a second cylinder of the same
diameter at the bottom, and with a similar flange on the upper and
lower end. On the top of this cylinder I place a third picce, the bottom
of which has a flange of angle iron of the same diameter as the first
two cylinders, but rapidly diminishing in diameter to six feet, the
upper end being also rivetted to an angle iron. On the top of all I place
a cap, the lower end being six feet in diameter, and riveted to an angle
iron. This cap is only two feet high, closed over the top with riveted
iron plates. The flanges of angle iron are all of them pierced with
corresponding holes, so that they may be bolted together in at least eight
different places on each pair of flanges. The oven has four openings on
each cylinder, and also in the cap, at equal distances one from the other,
and about one foot square. Each opening can be closed by an iron door,
so that they may be opened or shut to cause more or less draught.
When in use the oven stands over a circular hole dug in the ground of
rather smaller diameter than the oven, with a square opening on one side
dug outside the circle, into which the workmen descend with a ladder.
The pieces of peat either moulded, condensed, or dried, which may be

page_text: employed to make the charcoal, are placed in the interior of the hole in
the earth and in the interior of the cylinders by men accustomed to
burning charcoal.
In witness whereof I, the said John Box, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.