AN IMPROVED SYSTEM FOR THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF PEAT, AND IN THE APPARATUS THEREFOR, PARTS OF WHICH ARE PECULIARLY APPLICABLE TO THE ROASTING AND SMELTING OF POWDERED 'SAND' AND OTHER SMALL METALLIC ORES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Walker, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
SYSTEM FOR THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF PEAT, AND IN THE
APPARATUS THEREFOR,
PARTS OF WHICH ARE PECULIARLY APPLICABLE TO THE
ROASTING AND SMELTING OF POWDERED 'SAND' AND OTHER SMALL METALLIC
ORES."
Sealed the 5th June 1874, and dated the 9th December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th December 1873.
I, WILLIAM WALKER, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,.
Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM FOR THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF PEAT, AND
IN THE APPARATUS THEREFOR, PARTS OF WHICH ARE PECULIARLY APPLICABLE TO THE
-ROASTING AND SMELTING OF POWDERED 'SAND' AND OTHER SMALL METALLIC ORES,"
to be as follows:-
―:

page_text: therefrom, and effect the solidification of the blocks of peat at one
operation. The objects being the production of a compact and homo-
genous fuel from peat alone, or in combination with small coal, coal
dust, or other suitable combustible material or combination thereof,
and when required converting the same into charcoal or coke, and when
applied to the roasting or smelting of small ores, such as the residuum
from copper pyrites, the iron sand of New Zealand, and other small
fragments of metallic ores, it is proposed to incorporate them in the
body of the fuel during the course of preparing the same, either alone or
in combination with a flux. By this system a cheap and portable fuel
is produced applicable to all purposes to which coal, coke, or charcoal
are now applied, and in the smelting of small ores, removing much of
the difficulty hitherto experienced.
In carrying out this Invention the peat is raised from the bog in any
way (the size or form of the pieces being comparatively unimportant); it
is then masticated or disintegrated, which may be done by any of the
well-known or other convenient means, but it is preferred to use a
disintegrating and mixing apparatus, similar to that described in the
Specification of Letters Patent granted to James Banks and the
applicant, dated 22nd September, 1871, and numbered 2495, or a similar
or analagous apparatus, and which may be described as a hopper fitted
on to the upper end of a vertical, oblique, or horizontal cylinder, sup-
ported in bearings carried on a suitable frame. This cylinder is so
mounted that it can be rotated on its longitudinal axis, and is fitted
internally with cross stays formed with knife edges, and having an eye
in the centre of each, through which is introduced a shaft which extends
completely through and through the cylinder, and mounted at each end
in suitable bearings. The shaft is fitted with gear for driving it in the
opposite direction to that of the cylinder. Within the cylinder the
rotating shaft is fitted with radial cutting blades which work in contact
with the transverse cutting blade stays attached to 'the cylinder, which,
running in an opposite direction form a series of revolving and con-
tinuous shears, and in addition to the cutting blades sections of screw or
other propeller blades may be fitted on to the shaft or the cylinder in the
spaces between the cutting blades to force the disentegrated peat forward a
into a fixed, horizontal, or oblique tube or cylinder, which has a revolving
shaft running longitudally through the centre and fitted with screw or
other propeller and mixing blades to incorporate the small coal, coal

page_text: dust, ore, flux, or other material or combination of material, with the
masticated peat in its passage therethrough, and which amalgamations
are introduced through the medium of a hopper or hoppers fitted on to
the upper side of the tube. The said hopper or hoppers being provided
in the throat with an archimedian screw or other propellers for thrusting
the small coal, ore, or other substances into the masticated peat in the
tube, where it is incorporated therewith by the action of the mixing and
propeller blades on the centre shaft.
When it is discharged from the machine it can be received into bags,
on to or into cloths, or may be allowed to fall into a trough or tank,
where, if found desirable, it may be allowed to settle for a time, or it
may be received on to an endless apron of cloth, or other porous material,
supported upon antifriction rollers.
When it is desirable to discharge the products of the machine at
higher elevation than the discharge orifice, to prevent it slipping back-
wards the cloth or other band is provided with a number of transverse
bars having short arms at a right angle to the ends of each bar.
The masticated peat, when received into a trough or inclined spout,
may be raised to any required height by means of clevators, as is well
understood.
To express the moisture and solidify the masticated peat and form it
into blocks of any convenient and useful size, it is put into bags, or, by
preference, enveloped in cloths and piled in a press of a peculiar descrip-
tion, in which the weight of the material itself is made to do the work
of pressing out the extraneous water and solidifying the peat into hard
compact blocks. This press may consist of, say four upright posts or
piles driven into the ground, and having an elevation of, say not less
than from sixty or eighty feet above the surface, and which are secured
together with cross stays to insure their being parallel. Each post on
the inner edge is fitted with a guide rod or rail for keeping the guide
plates in position.
On the platform on the ground there is fitted an inverted screw press,
i.e., a powerful vertical screw, the top of which carries a platten working
up and down in the space between the uprights a given distance (say)
6 or 7 feet. In filling the press in the first instance the platten is lifted
up to its maximum height, and a certain number of the bags containing
the disentegrated peat are piled thereon, then two or more beams are laid.

page_text: down upon them, then an iron or other plate is laid on the top in such a
way as to be kept in position within the four guide rods or rails, then a
further number of bags are piled on the plate, then the beams and plate,
as before, and so on, until the press is completely full, when it will be
found that the superincumbent weight of the mass will have pressed out
a greater part of the water, and will have solidified the lower layers into
solid blocks. The mass is then let down so as to bring the beams below
the first horizontal plate so as to rest upon suitable supports on the
uprights, then the lower layer of bags may be removed, after which the
platten on the head of the screw is again elevated to its maximum
height, and in the meantime the press has been filled up from the top,
and so on continuously. The bags are then stripped off the compressed
peat, when it will be found compressed into solid blocks, and sufficiently
dry for ordinary purposes, but if it is required to be further desiccated
it can be readily stacked so as to be dried as far as may be in the air,
or it may be placed in a kiln or oven if it is to be entirely deprived of
moisture. In place of using bags as the vehicle for the peat through the
press it is much preferred to use sheets of cloth or other porous material,
which may be conveniently filled by using (say) either a fixed or move-
able rectangular frame of the required size, the sheet being laid over the
frame the peat pulp is run into the centre of the cloth until the frame
is full or partially filled, then one side of the sheet is folded over the
mass, then the other, after which the two ends are turned over on to the
top; then another sheet is spread out, the frame elevated, and the peat
pulp introduced and enveloped in the same way, and so on as the work
proceeds when the frame is moveable; but when fixed, the enveloped peat
passes through the frame as the contents of the press descend.
Other mechanical means than the vertical screw may be used to
lower the contents of the press as will be obvious to every practical
mechanic.
In some cases it is preferred to intersperse between the packages of
masticated peat in the press a number of tubes perforated with a number
of lateral holes to assist the drainage. Brushwood, reeds, or other light,
loose, compressible materials may be applied for the same purpose.
When the compressed blocks of peat are to be charred it is preferred
to do so in a tall vertical kiln consisting of (say) a square tower or shaft
(say) twenty to thirty feet in height, built with hollow walls having a

page_text: series of air passages extending from the exterior to the interior, which
can be opened and closed at pleasure.
The blocks of compressed peat are stacked in the kiln and ignited
from the bottom, and as the mass becomes sufficiently charred the air
passages are closed to stop the combustion below.
At the commencement of the process a portion or the whole of the
air passages may be closed above the point the charring process is going
on, leaving open only sufficient to admit air to support combustion; when
the lower part of the mass is sufficiently charred, the next set of air
passages are opened and the lower ones must then be closed and made
air-tight to prevent the char being consumed, and so on, until the whole
mass has been converted into charcoal, then the top of the kiln is closed
and the mass allowed to cool.
When the consolidated blocks of peat are impregnated with small ore
during the charring the roasting process is performed, and by introducing
the blocks of charcoal so prepared into the blast furnace the smelting
may be accomplished either alone or with the aid of additional fuel.
The kiln can be so arranged that the charge may be withdrawn
periodically in the same way as the compressed peat is taken from the
press, as herein-before described. In that case it is preferred to have a
part of the lower portion of the kiln below ground, with a side opening.
fitted with a close door, through which the char is withdrawn. It is
proposed to elevate the platten or moving stage through a moveable iron
frame (which might be aptly termed a bottomless drawer).
On the platten being let down the incandescent mass is received within.
the frame, and is then drawn on to a truck constructed with a tight iron.
bottom, sides, and top, but open at each end.
On the truck receiving its load it can immediately be run into a close
chamber to cool, or the bottomless drawer or frame containing the char
may be thrust from the truck into a close chamber to allow the char to
cool without exposure to the external atmosphere.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WALKER, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Consulting Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Walker, Her special
license that I, the said William Walker, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Walker, 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 "AN IMPROVED
SYSTEM FOR THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF PEAT AND IN THE APPARATUS
THEREFOR, PARTS OF WHICH ARE PECULIARLY APPLICABLE TO ROASTING AND SMELT-
ING POWDERED 'SAND' AND OTHER SMALL METALLIC ORES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Walker, 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 rext and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Walker, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
he nonformed to be nauticularly described and ascertained in and by the

page_text: water therefrom, and effect the solidification of the blocks of peat at
one operation. The objects being the production of a compact and
homogeneous fuel from peat alone, or in combination with small coal,
coal dust, or other suitable combustible material or combination thereof;
and when required, converting the same into charcoal, or coke, and when
applied to the roasting or smelting of small ores, such as the residuum
from copper pyrites, the iron sand of New Zealand, and other small
fragments of metallic ores, I incorporate them in the body of the fuel
during the course of preparing the same, either alone or in combination
with a flux. By this system a cheap and portable fuel is produced
applicable to all purposes which coal, coke, or charcoal are now applied;
and in the smelting of small ores removing much of the difficulty
hitherto experienced.
In carrying out this my said Invention the peat is raised from the bog
in any way (the size or form of the picces being comparatively unim-
portant); it is then masticated or disintegrated, which may be done by
any of the well-known or other convenient means, but it is preferred to
use a disintegrating and mixing apparatus similar to that described in
the Specification of Letters Patent granted to James Banks and myself,
dated 22nd September 1871, and numbered 2495, or a similar or
analagous apparatus, and which may be described as a hopper fitted on
to the upper end of a vertical oblique or horizontal cylinder supported
in bearings carried on a suitable frame. This cylinder is so mounted
that it can be rotated on its longitudinal axes, and is fitted internally.
with cross stays formed with knife edges, and having an eye in the
centre of each, through which is introduced a shaft which extends com-
pletely through and through the cylinder, and mounted at each end in
suitable bearings. This shaft is fitted with gear for driving it in the
opposite direction to that of the cylinder. Within the cylinder the
rotating shaft is fitted with radial cutting blades which work in contact
with the transverse cutting blade stays attached to the cylinder, which,
running in an opposite direction, form a series of revolving and con-
tinuous shears; and in addition to the cutting blades, sections of screw or
other propeller blades may be fitted on to the shaft or the cylinder in
the spaces between the cutting blades to force the disintegrated peat
forward into a fixed horizontal or oblique tube or cylinder which has a
revolving shaft running longitudinally through the centre, and fitted with

page_text: screw or other propeller and mixing blades to incorporate the small coal,
coal dust, ore, flux, or other material or combination of material with
the masticated peat in its passage therethrough, and which amalgama-
tions are introduced through the medium of a hopper or hoppers fitted
on to the upper side of the tube. The said hopper or hoppers being
provided in the throat with an archimedian screw or other propeller for
thrusting the small coal, ore, or other substances into the masticated
peat in the tube, where it is incorporated therewith by the action of the
mixing and propeller blades on the centre shaft.
When it is discharged from the machine it can be received into bags
on to or into cloths, or may be allowed to fall into a trough or tank,
where, if found desirable, it may be allowed to settle for a time. In
some cases I prefer to form the tank with perforated sides and bottom,
and cover the same with porous cloth or other material that will allow a
portion of the surplus water from the peat to drain therethrough. Or.
it may be received on to an endless apron of cloth or other porous
material supported upon antifriction rollers.
When it is desirable to discharge the products of the machine at a
higher elevation than the discharge orifice, to prevent it slipping back-
I wards the cloth or other band is provided with a number of transverse
bars having short arms at a right angle to the ends of each bar.
The masticated peat, when received into a trough or inclined spout,
may be raised to any required height by means of elevators, as is well
understood.
To express the moisture and solidify the masticated peat and form it
into blocks of any convenient and useful size, I put it into bags, or by
preference, envelope it in cloths and pile them in a press of a peculiar
description, in which the weight of the material itself is made to do the
work of pressing out the extraneous water and solidifying the peat into
hard compact blocks. This press may consist of say four upright posts
or piles driven into the ground and having an elevation of say not less
than from sixty or eighty feet above the surface, and which are secured
together with cross stays to insure the uprights being parallel to each.
other. The inner edges are fitted with a guide rod or rail for keeping
the guide plates in position, as herein-after shown.

page_text: On the platform on the ground I fit an inverted screw press, i.c., a
powerful vertical screw, the top of which carries a platen working up
and down in the space between the uprights a given distance, say six or
seven feet.
In filling the press in the first instance the platen is lifted
up to its maximum height and a certain number of the bags containing
the disintegrated peat are piled thereon, then two or more beams are
laid down upon them, then an iron or other plate is laid on the top in
such a way as to be kept in position within the four guide rods or rails
on the edges of the uprights, then a further number of bags or envelopes
enclosing the masticated peat are piled on the plate, then the beams and
plate as before, and so on, until the press is completely full, when it will
be found that the superincumbent weight of the mass will have pressed
out a greater part of the water, and will have solidified the lower layers
into solid blocks. The mass is then let down so as to bring the beams
below the first horizontal plate to rest upon suitable supports on the
uprights, then the lower layer of bags may be removed, after which the
platten on the head of the screw is again elevated to its maximum
height, and in the meantime the press has been filled up from the top,
and so on continuously. The bags are then stripped off the compressed
peat, when it will be found compressed into solid blocks and sufficiently
dry for ordinary purposes; but if it is required to be further desiccated it
can be readily stacked so as to be dried as far as may be in the air, or it
may be placed in a kiln or oven if it is to be entirely deprived of
moisture. In place of using bags as the vehicle for the peat through
the press I much prefer to use sheets of cloth or other porous material
which may be conveniently filled by using (say) either a fixed or move-
able rectangular frame of the required size, the sheet being laid over the
frame the peat pulp is run into the centre of the cloth until the frame is
full or partially filled, then one side of the sheet is folded over the mass,
then the other, after which the two ends are turned over on to the top..
Then another sheet is spread out, the frame elevated, and the peat pulp
introduced and enveloped in the same way, and so on as the work
proceeds, when the frame is moveable, but when fixed the enveloped peat
passes through the frame as the contents of the press descend.

page_text: In some cases I prefer to intersperse between the packages of masti-
cated peat in the press a number of tubes perforated with a number of
lateral holes to assist the drainage. Brushwood, reeds, or other light,
loose compressible materials may be applied for the same purpose.
When the compressed blocks of peat are to be charred I prefer to do
so in a tall vertical kiln consisting of (say) a square tower or shaft (say
twenty to thirty feet in height) built with hollow walls having a series
of air passages extending from the exterior to the interior, which can be
opened and closed at pleasure.
The blocks of compressed peat are stacked in the kiln and ignited:
from the bottom, and as the mass becomes sufficiently charred the air
passages are closed to stop the combustion below.
At the commencement of the process a portion or the whole of the air
passages may be closed above the point the charring process is going
on, leaving open only sufficient to admit air to support combustion;
when the lower part of the mass is sufficiently charred the next set of
air passages are opened, and the lower ones must then be closed and
made air-tight to prevent the char being consumed, and so on, until the
whole mass has been converted into charcoal, then the top of the kiln is
closed and the mass allowed to cool.
When the consolidated blocks of peat are impregnated with small ore
during the charring the roasting process is performed, and by introducing
the blocks of charcoal so prepared into the blast furnace the smelting
may be accomplished either alone or with the aid of additional fuel.
The kiln can be so arranged that the charge may be withdrawn?
periodically in the same way as the compressed peat is taken from the
press as herein-before described. In that case it is preferred to have a
part of the lower portion of the kiln below ground with a side opening.
fitted with a close door through which the char is withdrawn. I propose
to elevate the platten or moving stage through a moveable iron frame a
(which might be aptly termed a bottomless drawer.)
On the platten being let down the incandescent mass is received
within the frame, and is then drawn on to a truck constructed with a

page_text: chamber to cool; or the bottomless drawer or frame containing the char
may be thrust from the truck into a close chamber to allow the char to
cool without undue exposure to the external atmosphere.
That this my improved system for the treatment of peat and so forth
may be the more readily understood and carried into effectual practice, I
have hereunto annexed Drawings illustrating so much of the apparatus
as will be requisite to accomplish the desired end.
Like letters and figures marked on the Drawings are used to denote
similar parts.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a mechanical arrangement required to
carry out my system, the disintegrating and mixing machine and the
char kiln being shown in section, and Figure 2 is a ground plan of the
same. A, a double barge dredging machine, which is no novelty in
itself, except it may be the use of the twin barges. B, is a temporary
tramway, on which travels C, a ballast truck, into which the rough
peat is received from the dredge, and is used to convey and deposit
the same into D, the hopper of E, the masticating or disintegrating
machine, which is in line with F, the mixing apparatus, which in this
arrangement is shown with two hoppers, one to receive say the small
coal or dust or sand ore, and the other the flux or other material to
be incorporated with the masticated peat. G is the press, which
consists of g, four uprights supported by 9', struts or stay posts.
H, a gallery on the top of the press for the attendant to receive the
peat to be pressed from I, the elevators for raising the masticated
peat from J, the receiving trough, which is formed with K, an inner
perforated casing to allow so much of the surplus water to escape as
will naturally drain from the peat during its transit through the
reservoir. L, engine for working the elevators I. M, the bags or
envelopes containing the masticated peat and so forth. N, the inter-
leaving plate of iron or other material which are kept in position by
P, angle irons on the edges of the uprights g. Q, beams placed
underneath the plates N to support the mass on. R, stops. S, a screw
arrangement for lowering the mass in the press. T, the char kiln,
which is provided with*t, openings to ignite the mass when the kiln is
fully charged, and which are closed after ignition has taken place.

page_text: And, lastly. The improved system for the treatment and utilization of
peat, and the general arrangement of apparatus therefor, herein-before
fully described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Walker, have hereunto
set my hand and affixed my seal, this Ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
WILLIAM (L.S.) WALKER.