IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PEAT FOR FUEL OR CHARCOAL, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PEAT FOR FUEL OR CHARCOAL, AND
APPARATUS THEREFOR."-A communication from abroad by William
Bennett Hays, of Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Intray at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th March 1874.
I, JOHN IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lanc,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PEAT FOR FUEL or
CHARCOAL, AND Apparatus THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
J

page_text: "
which after drying or seasoning can be used either directly as fuel, or
can be converted into charcoal. For this purpose, the peat to be treated
is pugged, when necessary, to render it nearly uniform in consistency
in any known manner, and is then charged into the feeding hopper
or shoot of a straining and moulding apparatus of the following
description:-A wheel mounted on a vertical axis is caused to revolvo
in a horizontal plane. Near the periphery of this wheel are formed a
number of moulds or cavities of circular, rectangular, or polygonal form,
open at the top and the bottom. Each of these moulds is fitted with
a piston which can move upwards or downwards in it, and each of the
moulds is also provided with a cover jointed to the wheel, so that it can
either be folded down to cover the mould or can be folded back, leaving
the mould open at the top. Both the piston and the cover of cach
mould are connected to levers mounted on the wheel, and having at
their outer ends rollers which run upon guide rails fixed around the
wheel. Over the wheel at one part of its periphery is fixed a hopper or
feeding shoot into which the pugged peat is charged, and in front of this
hopper is a curved guide by which the peat blocks are guided off the
face of the wheel..
"
The operation of this apparatus is as follows:-The wheel being made
"to revolve the moulds are successively brought under the hopper, at
which part of their course their covers are folded back, and their pistons
are caused to descend by the rollers of their piston levers running on a
portion of guide rail, sloping downwards so that thic moulds becomie filled
with peat from the hopper. As they pass out from beneath it charged with
peat their covers are folded over them by the rollers on the cover levers.
When the covers are
running along a sloping portion of the guide rail.
thus folded down they are held firmly down by the rollers on their levers -
running under a level part of the guide rail. In the farther course of
the moulds their pistons are moved gradually up, so as to compress the
peat. by the rollers on the piston levers running along a portion of the
guide rail sloping upwards. The piston and also the covers of the
moulds are perforated with numerous holes, and covered by wire gauze,
wollen fabric, and hair cloth, the hair cloth being presented
towards the peat. By the compression given to the peat a large pro-
portion of its moisture is strained out, and escapes through the hair
cloth fabric and gauze and the holes in the piston and cover, and the
open

page_text: peat is at the same time consolidated into blocks. While this compressing
force is applied, forcing the pistons upwards, the mould covers are held
down by their rollers running along the horizontal under surface of the
guide rail, and thus none of the compressing strain is thrown on the
3 wheel. As the moulds continue their circular course the mould covers
themselves are again raised and folded back by their rollers running
along a sloped part of the guide rail. The pistons being still caused to
ascend force the moulded peat blocks up out of the moulds, and these
blocks when thus raised above the surface of the wheel meet the curved
guide, and are thereby guided off the wheel, whereupon the moulds
again pass under the hopper to be charged, and the operation is con-
tinuously repeated.
i
Instead of employing a wheel mounted on an axis as above described,
the moulds may be formed in a ring guided to revolve in a circular
> course.
Also instead of working the pistons and mould covers by levers, as
above described, the pistons may be provided with rollers running on a
sloping rail immediately under them, and the covers may be folded up
and down by levers having rollers meeting portions of sloped guide rails
O placed in suitable positions, and when down may be held down by
sliding or turning bolts acted on by fixed cam guides, with which rollers
mounted on those bolts are brought in contact as the wheel or ring
revolves. When this arrangement is adopted the strain of compression
is taken off the wheel or ring by providing it with rollers that run under
5 the level face of a fixed rail or of a flange of the sloping rail which works
the pistons.
For farther drying by evaporation of the moulded peat blocks it is
advantageous that a large surface should be exposed, and for this
purpose it is preferred to provide one or more taper picces projecting
O down from each mould cover, so as to form a hole or holes in tho
moulded peat blocks. Such projections should be tubular, perforated,
and clothed with hair cloth for the issue of the moisture.
The blocks discharged from the apparatus by the curved guide are
farther dried and seasoned by evaporation, and for this purpose they
5 should be stacked either in the open or in sheds in such a manner as to
allow a free circulation of air around them.

page_text: The drying may be accelerated by stacking them on trucks and passing
the charged trucks in succession through a chamber through which a
current of warm dry air is maintained by a fan or chimney draught in.
any known manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL, COME, I, JOHN
IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-.
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Imray, Her special license
that I, the said John Imray, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Imray, my exécutors,
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 IN
THE PREPARATION OF PEAT FOR FUEL OR CHARCOAL, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR,"
a communication to me from abroad by William Bennett Hays, of Cape
Town, Cape of Good Hope, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Imray, 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 YE, that I, the said John Imray, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be:

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is
to say-
This Invention relates to a method of and apparatus for extracting
from peat a large proportion of its moisture and moulding it into blocks;
which after drying or seasoning can be used either directly as fuel, or
can be converted into charcoal. For this purpose, the peat to be treated
is pugged, when necessary, to render it nearly uniform in consistency
in any known manner, and is then charged into the feeding hopper
or shoot of a straining and moulding apparatus of the following
description: A wheel mounted on a vertical axis is caused to revolvo
in a horizontal plane. Near the periphery of this wheel are formed a
number of moulds or cavities of circular, rectangular, or polygonal form;
open at the top and the bottom. Each of these moulds is fitted with a
piston which can move upwards or downwards in it, and cach of the
moulds is also provided with a cover jointed to the wheel, so that it can
either be folded down to cover the mould, or can be folded back, leaving
the mould open at the top. Both the piston and the cover of each
mould are connected to levers mounted on the wheel, and having at
their outer ends rollers which run upon guide rails fixed around the
wheel. Over the wheel at one part of its periphery is fixed a hopper or
feeding shoot into which the pugged peat is charged, and in front of this
hopper is a curved guide by which the peat blocks are guided off the
face of the wheel.
The operation of this apparatus is as follows:-The wheel being made
to revolve, the moulds are successively brought under the hopper, at
which part of their course their covers are folded back, and their pistons
are caused to descend by the rollers of their piston levers running on a
portion of guide rail sloping downwards, so that the moulds become
filled with peat from the hopper. As they pass out from beneath it
charged with peat their covers are folded over them by the rollers on the
cover levers running along a sloping portion of the guide rail. When
the covers are thus folded down they are held firmly down by the rollers
on their levers running under a level part of the guide rail. In the
farther course of the moulds their pistons are moved gradually up so as
to compress the peat by the rollers on the piston levers running along a

page_text: Fig. 1 represents a plan partly in section of a machine for straining.
and moulding peat according to this Invention; Fig. 2 is an elevation
of the machine; Fig. 3 represents a vertical section; and Figs. 4 and 5
a plan and part vertical section of one of the pistons to an enlarged
scale.
a is the bed plate, and the cover, secured firmly together by a fixed
axis c, and by bolts connecting the flange of the cover to curved
standards d, d, extending upwards from the bed plate; e is the mould
wheel mounted loosely on the vertical axis c, and caused to revolve by
worm or other suitable gearing. A number of moulds f,f,f, are formed
near the periphery of the wheel e, each mould being extended below the
wheel at g to guide the pistons h, h, in their vertical movement. i, i, aro
the mould covers provided with levers k, k, working between fixed guido
rails 7, 1, so formed that during the revolution of the wheel each of the
covers is successively raised and folded back, so as to leave its mould
open at the top. The pistons / and covers i are each provided with
rollers m, m, which run upon sloping rails », s, formed respectively on
the bed plate and cover of the machine. n is the hopper or feeding
shoot into which the pugged peat is charged, and in front of this hopper
is a curved plate o having a knife-edge for cutting off the peat blocks as
they are pushed out of the moulds, and a curved flange for guiding them
off the face of the wheel when they are detached.
The wheel e being made to revolve in the direction of the arrow the
moulds are brought successively under the hopper, whence the pugged

page_text: Third. The use of hair cloth for covering the perforations of moulds in
hich peat is strained.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Imray, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-.
four.