Improvements relating to the Treatment of Peat, and to Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Mar., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 30th Dec., 1895-Accepted, 30th Mar., 1896
Dauerdam, Dera, in the p
Improvements relating to the Treatment of Peat, and to Apparatus
therefor.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the treatment of peat and to apparatus therefor.
Particles of peat that is to say the parts which can be washed in water and
rinsed through a perforated plate or a sieve having holes or meshes of about
one millimeter in size, contain three different substances namely:
(1) Fibres
(2) Mud
(3) Other vegetable substances.
When these three substances are separated from each other, the fibres may be
employed in the manufacture of paper, the mud as a material for manufacturing
heavy peat in a baked or pressed form and the other vegetable matter as a
substance to form light baking peat and to form peat for strewing purposes.
For the separation, as before set forth a sorting device and a sieve or perforated
plate provided with small meshes or holes about of a millimeter in size, are
requisite.
The sorting device consists of a box which is divided in its interior into several
compartments by means of transverse walls, which extend not quite so high as
the outer walls of the box; the outer rear wall of said box is provided with an
orifice.
The sieve or perforated plate is arranged outside this orifice and so as to
present exactly the same width but being about half a meter lower than the
orifice, and is provided with walls preventing any water or liquid from flowing
off laterally.
The operation is as follows:
The particles of peat floating in water or liquid are passed into the sorting
device at the front of the latter, this is effected continuously, and in a quantity
equal to that which flows off simultaneously through the orifice in the rear side.
After the several compartments of the sorting device have become filled, the
fibres and the mud of the peat material flow over the transverse walls into the
last of the compartments and fall from this latter through its before-mentioned
orifice, upon the sieve arranged below.
Any further vegetable substance contained in the peat material, apart from
the fibres and mud, settle down at the bottom of the sorting-device during their
The fall of the
passage and remain there until they are separately removed.
fibres and of the mud within the quantity of water which they carry with them
from the sorting device upon the sieve arranged below, causes the connection
between the muddy substance and the fibres to be dissolved and the water
together with the muddy substance to flow off through the sieve, whereas the
fibres for which the meshes of the sieve are too narrow remain upon the sieve.

page_text: The water flowing off with the muddy substance is passed into receptacles, in
which the latter substance is allowed to settle, the water being then discharged
at the top of said receptacle.
If a single operation of sorting the fibres and freeing them from the muddy
substance has not effected a thorough cleaning of the same, the operation is
repeated.
The same process may be applied with the same result in cases where coarser
portions of peat are treated by previously disintegrating them to a sufficient extent.
The peat material flows from the stirring tub into the sorting device. For
removing the vegetable substances settling down therein an elevator is used
which slowly moves along the bottom.
The boxes of the elevator are provided with small holes, through which the
water can gradually flow off during the upward movement. The vegetable sub-
stances carried up in said boxes then fall during the upper turning motion of these
boxes through a drop-hopper alternately into one of the reservoirs serving as
collecting vessels therefor.
The rotary shute-sieve has a water-tight tank arranged between its upper and
lower gate, in which tank the mud containing liquid, flowing off through the shute-
sieve is collected and out of which said liquid is passed through a pipe either
alternately into one of two large vessels for receiving the muddy liquid or only
into one of such vessels. After this vessel or these vessels have been filled and
the mud settled down therein, the water above the mud is discharged and the
latter then conveyed into a mud-receiving box or vessel common to both mud-liquid
vessels, by means of an automatic pushing device.
At the rear end of the rotary sieve the fibres thereon are washed away into the
sorting device by means of a sprinkling appliance, throwing a continuous jet of
liquid on to them.
This sorting device and the rotary sieve connected thereto are constructed
entirely in the same manner and are provided with the same accessories as in the
first described instances, the only difference being that the fibres at the extremity
of the second rotary sieve are not washed off but removed by a straining device.
Dated this 30th day of March 1895.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements relating to the Treatment of Peat, and to Apparatus
therefor.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to the treatment of peat and to apparatus therefor.
Particles of peat, that is to say the parts which can be washed in water and
rinsed through a perforated plate or a sieve having holes or meshes of about one
millimeter in size, contain three different substances namely:
(1) Fibres
(2) Mud
(3) Other vegetable substances.
When these three substances are separated from each other, the fibres may be
employed in the manufacture of paper, the mud as a material for manufacturing
beavy peat in a baked or pressed form, and the other vegetable matter as a
substance to form light baking peat and to form peat for strewing purposes.

page_text: For the separation, as before set forth a sorting device and a sieve or perforated
plate provided with small meshes or holes about of a millimeter in size, are
requisite.
The sorting device consists of a box which is divided in its interior into several
compartments by means of transverse walls, which are not quite so high as the
outer walls of the box, the outer rear wall of said box is provided with an orifice.
The sieve or perforated plate is arranged outside this orifice and so as to
present exactly the same width but being about half a meter lower than the
orifice, and is provided with walls preventing any water or liquid from flowing
off laterally.
The operation is as follows: The particles of peat floating in water or liquid are
passed into the sorting-device at the front of the latter, this is effected continuously
and in a quantity equal to that which flows off simultaneously through the orifice
in the rear side.
After the several compartments of the sorting device have become filled, the
fibres and the mud of the peat material flow over the transverse walls into the last
of the compartments and fall from this latter through its before-mentioned orifice,
upon the sieve arranged below.
Any further vegetable substances contained in the peat material, apart from the
fibres and mud, settle down at the bottom of the sorting-device during their passage
The fall of the fibres and of
and remain there until they are separately removed.
the mud within the quantity of water, which they carry with them from the
sorting device upon the sieve arranged below, causes the connection between the
muddy substance and the fibres to be dissolved and the water together with
the muddy substance to flow off through the sieve, whereas the fibres for which
the meshes of the sieve are too narrow remains upon the sieve.
The water flowing off with the muddy substance is passed into receptacles, in
which the latter substance is allowed to settle, the water being then discharged at
the top of said receptacle.
If a single operation of sorting the fibres and freeing them from the muddy
substance has not effected a thorough cleaning of the same, the operation is
repeated.
The same process may be applied with the same result in cases where coarser
portions of peat are treated by previously disintegrating them to a sufficient
extent.
The accompanying drawings represent two sorting devices with chute-sieves and
other auxiliary devices, arranged one behind the other and operated upon
accordingly.
The peat material flows from the stirring tub A into the sorting device I. For
removing the vegetable substances settling down therein an elevator B is used
which slowly moves along the bottom.. The sorting device consists of a reservoir
divided into several compartments by vertical walls, which are not quite as high
as the outer walls of the reservoir, so that the water let into one compartment
will overflow the inner walls and fill the compartments one after the other.
The buckets of the elevator are provided with small holes, through which the
The vegetable
water can gradually flow off during the upward movement.
substances carried up in the said buckets then fall during the upper turning
motion of these buckets through a drop-hopper C alternately into one of the
reservoirs D D¹ serving as collecting vessels therefor. The rotary chute sieve E.
consists of a band mounted on two rollers, in order to transfer the fibres to the
sprinkling device K, which washes them away into the sorting device I I.
The rotary chute-sieve E has a water-tight tank F arranged between its upper
and lower gate, in which tank the mud-containing liquid, flowing off through the
chute-sieve is collected and out of which said liquid is passed through a pipe G
either alternately into one of two large vessels for receiving the muddy liquid or
only into one of such vessels H. After this vessel or these vessels have been filled
and the mud settled down therein, the water above the mud is discharged and the

page_text: latter then conveyed into a mud-receiving box or vessel J' common to both
mud-liquid vessels, by means of an automatic pushing device.
At the rear end of the rotary sieve E the fibres thereon are washed away into
the sorting device II by means of a sprinkling appliance K, throwing a continuous
jet of liquid on to them.
This sorting device and the rotary sieve L connected thereto are constructed
entirely in the same manner and are provided with the same accessories as in the
first described instances, the only difference being that the fibres at the extremity
of the second rotary sieve are not washed off but removed by a draining device.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
A process for the separation of peat substance into three various substances,
namely fibres, mud, and other vegetable matter, the characteristic feature being
that the peat substance which may either represent natural particles of peat or
disintegrated coarser parts or pieces of peat or a mixture of both, are, while
floating in water, caused to enter at the front of a box with transverse walls, the
height of which walls does not quite reach that of the outer walls of the box, and
as soon as the said peat substance floats along over its transverse walls it is caused
to pass out again at its rear wall and is subsequently caused to precipitate together
with the drifted water about one half of a meter down upon a sieve or perforated
sheet metal plate provided with fine meshes or holes of for instance one fourth of a
millimeter in size for the purpose of separating and settling the vegetable matter
at the bottom of the partitions formed by the transverse walls, of separating and
settling the fibres upon the sieve and of separating and settling the mud in a
collecting vessel (F and H respectively) arranged below the said sieve.
Dated this 30th day of December 1895.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.