CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN. THE PREPARATION OF PEAT AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SAME INTO FUEL, CHARCOAL, AND GAS
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIF.
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th June 1856.-A communication.
I, FRANCOIS JOSEPH LUCIEN MALEZIEUX, Merchant, of Paris, in the French
Empire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN. THE PREPARATION OF PEAT AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE
SAME INTO FUEL, CHARCOAL, AND GAS," (communicated to me. by M* Gautier, a
foreigner residing abroad,) to be as follows:-
The peat is first carefully separated from stones and other hard substances,.
and then conveyed to the works in carts, barges, or other receptacles, from
which it is emptied into a trough with inclined sides by a dredging machine
or an Archimedean screw. From the trough the peat is projected into a
pulping engine, in which it is received by arms or guides (having a to-and-fro-
motion), and forced against a drum furnished with teeth or cutters, on to
which a stream of water is kept flowing. The peat is thereby reduced to
a state of pulp, and may be further reduced by beating or pounding it by
pestles, or by a cane mill, or between fluted rolls or vertical mill stones. Or,.
instead of the pulping drum I use moveable grindstones, with, peripheries

page_text: serrated stepwise, mounted on a bedplate, perforated with graduated conical
holes, through which the pulpy matter, diluted with water, falls on to the
purifier. This purifier is a channel or shoot, divided into descending com-
partments, in which the sulphurous acid and other impurities are deposited.
The purifier is so suspended as to be easily turned over when required to
empty out the compartments. From the shoot the peat passes into receivers,
in which it is allowed to drain, and when the pulp has acquired sufficient con-
sistency, it is moulded or shaped by cutters. I employ for this purpose cutters,
consisting of strips of wood fastened together 'at right angles and bevilled off
at their lower ends, or of a number of squares. The receivers are made of
wood, turf, clay, or other suitable material, or of cloth stretched on a frame or
on rods; they may be either with or without bottoms. I also employ receivers
consisting of a number of detachable parts or rows of wood or other material,
placed one on the other. In some cases I form the bottom of the receiver of
a frame with holes, in which I insert sticks or rods, which lie across the bottom
and leave passages for the admission of air to expedite the desiccation of the
peat; on the sticks I.lay straw or reeds for the peat to rest on.
As soon as
the peat in the receiver comes away from the sides, the top edge of the receiver
is taken off, and then the top of the mass of peat is cut away to the level of
the next edge. The second edge is then cut away and the peat cut down to
the level of the third, and so on successively till all the peat is removed and.
cut into blocks. In the centre of each square of the cutter I sometimes pro-
vide an opening which communicates with the openings through the sticks at
bottom, and thereby leaves a passage for air through each block of peat. To
counteract the tendency to depression at the top of the block, the edges of the
receiver may be so arranged as to give the block a rather broader surface, at
top than at bottom; or the peat, before passing into the receiver, may be
first poured into a vessel and allowed to flow over into the receiver. The
drying may be accelerated by subjecting the turf to the action of hot air in
close chambers, in which there is only one issue for the exit of steam.
To prepare peat for the manufacture of illuminating gas, I place it in close
vaulted chambers or drying stoves having only one outlet for the exit of steam,
in which I subject it for some hours to the action of a current of surcharged
steam which has been made to pass through red hot hollow fire-bars in a
furnace placed between the generator and the drying chambers. The steam
prevents the volatilization of the carbon and impedes its combination with the
oxygen and neutralizes or eliminates the sulphurous acid, thereby not only.
adapting the peat for illuminating purposes, but also preparing it as a
serviceable fuel. The peat is carbonized by keeping up the action of the

page_text: surcharged steam on it in vessels adapted for collecting the volatile pro-
ducts of distillation. I also apply this method for distilling the tar and
other fatty and resinous matters arising from the carbonization of peat. I also
employ moveable cylindrical vessels formed with an orifice in the cover or
elsewhere, which I connect by means of a collar and joint with a stationary
tube, through which the fatty and ammoniacal products are conveyed to a
condensing receiver and the gas is carried to a retort.