IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DRYING OF PEAT AND ITS MANU- FACTURE OR PREPARATION INTO PEAT FUEL, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAID FUEL TO THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON FROM THE ORE, SOME PARTS OF THE SAID IMPROVE- MENTS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR DRYING OTHER MATERIALS OR SUBSTANCES AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Christopher Brakell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th April 1878.
I, CHRISTOPHER BRAKELL, of York Street Chambers, Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DRYING OF PEAT AND ITS MANU-
FACTURE OR PREPARATION INTO PEAT FUEL, AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAID FUEL
TO THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON FROM THE ORE, SOME PARTS OF THE SAID IMPROVE-
MENTS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR DRYING OTHER MATERIALS OR SUBSTANCES AND IN
APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,” to be as follows :—
I take the peat or turf from the bog and pass it between rollers
running at different speeds which thoroughly mix or macerate it and
break up the air and water cells, allowing the particles of peat to separate
or precipitate themselves more readily from the water, the peat is then
forced through a die or dies or openings in a continuous stream cut into
blocks and passed to the drying chambers or stoves.
In another arrangement I prefer a cylindrical casing having an inlet
or opening across its circumference inside the casing, I have a shaft on

page_text: which are fixed plates of oblong circular form of about the same
diameter as the casing, the said plates are not fixed at right angles to
the shaft but diagonally, the shaft with its plates being caused to revolve
and peat or turf being fed into the casing, it is violently agitated to
and fro and thereby thoroughly mixed and macerated, after which it may
be formed into blocks by hand or suitable machinery; I can form the
cylindrical casing either of plate iron or of bar iron with spaces between
the bars, and when necessary I can work the machine immersed in water
or partly so.
For drying the peat I prefer stoves or drying chambers of, say for
example, about 20 feet long, 4 feet broad, and 2 feet or more in height;
these stoves are made alongside of each other and connected with each
other at both ends, and at one end of each stove is a furnace or fire-grate
which can be closed or partly so from the atmosphere; the first of the
row of stoves is connected with the last one by piping or a flue, in con-
nection with which is a fan or blower; and it will be understood that the
whole can be closed or partly so from the outside atmosphere.
•
Inside of each stove I place an endless travelling lattice or lattices. The
mode of working is as follows:-The blocks or cakes of peat being pre-
pared as described are placed on the lattices, which are caused to travel
or move forward until each stove is filled with the peat, the doors are
then closed and the furnaces having fires lighted in them, the fan is set
to work and causes the air or gases to circulate continuously through the
stoves beginning with the first stove, the air or gases which get charged
with moisture from the peat are passed through the furnace which takes
out the moisture so that the gases are dry and ready for the second
stove, where they are again charged with moisture and are passed
through the furnace dry to the next stove, and so on; from the last stove
the gases are passed to the first through the fan and furnace and so
continually circulate; the furnaces are closed or partly so from the
atmosphere, that is to say, the hot moist gases pass through a closed
furnace grate, but I apply a perforated plate near the dead plate of the
furnace which will be in connection with the atmosphere for the purpose
of igniting the gases which have so passed through the fire.
Instead of passing the moist air or gases through a furnace as described
I may pass them through say a number of red-hot tubes, so as to conver

page_text: the moisture into what may be termed superheated steam, and if I pass
it through the furnace its oxygen will combine with the carbon of the
fuel, and the hydrogen will be ignited through the air entering at the
perforated plate referred to. The lattices pass round wheels and shafts
at each end and are supported at the sides and middle; I can also use
waggons to be run into the stoves on rails in place of the endless lattices,
and instead of passing, the air or gases through a furnace or fire I can
pass them through pipes or tubes heated by a fire under & around them.
Instead of having a row or range of stoves as described with a fire-
grate or furnace for each, I need only have one furnace for the lot, for
instance, I make the range of stoves with a door at both ends of each
stove, one door for feeding in the wet peat and the other door for dis-
charging the peat when dried. Under or above each end of the stoves
is a flue or pipe from which there is a connection to each stove.
These two cross flues or tubes are connected with each other by a flue
or tube running parallel with the stoves; in this parallel flue I place an
exhaust and discharge fan and also a fire-grate or furnace, and the fan
being set to work the air or gases are drawn through the stoves in one
direction enter the cross flue at one end of the stoves from which they
pass through the parallel connecting flue, and through the fan, by which
they are forced through the furnace; when being dried they pass into the
cross flue at the opposite end of the stoves, from which they pass through
openings therein to each stove, and passing through the stoves are again
passed through the fan and furnace, and in this way the hot gases are kept
in continual circulation. In this arrangement the wet peat can be fed in
at one end of the stoves and discharged at the other end when dried by
causing the endless lattices to move or travel.
In another method of drying I place the peat in a stove or drying
chamber, which has a furnace or arrangement of heated tubes at one end,
and at the other end I place a fan, which being set to work causes the
atmospheric air to be drawn through the furnace and made dry, and
capable of absorbing moisture, so that in passing through the peat it will
readily evaporate and absorb the moisture from it.
Instead of blowing the moist air so exhausted direct into the open air I .
discharge it through another tube or tubes of larger diameter, which is in
connection with the stove, and in this manner I draw off or pass through
the stove more air or gases than actually pass through the fan, the air

page_text: discharged from the fan acting like an ejector and drawing or causing
the air or gases from the stove to follow its current, being in fact an
"induced current," the result being that a smaller fan requiring less
power to work it may be used.
In another arrangement instead of having the peat in blocks or cakes 5
placed on the lattices as explained, the peat is discharged from the
rollers running at different speeds direct on to the lattices, and when
sufficiently dry is again if necessary passed through rollers to reduce it
to a rough powder, and it is afterwards pressed by suitable machines into
blocks of any required hardness, if necessary these blocks may be after- 1
wards passed through stoves so as to extract any moisture remaining.
To obtain a greater hardness in the said blocks with a less pressure
and to give a greater power of cohesion to the peat powder I mix a
certain proportion of damp powdered clay with the peat powder or I
moisten it with clay water.
The peat prepared as described can be used for the smelting of iron
ore or it may first be charred or made into charcoal, and the charring
ovens I propose to make something after the manner of coke ovens,
except that up the centre of each oven I place a flue or tube of iron or
fire-clay; through this central flue I pass air which is thereby heated and
dried, and apply the same for drying the peat in the stoves already
described.
The hot gases from the peat in process of charring I also apply to the
drying stoves.
Instead of applying the hot air from the central tubes of the charring
ovens to the drying stoves I use the central tubes for heating the air as
it passes from the blowing engine to the smelting furnaces. The hot
gases from the smelting furnaces I apply for heating the steam boilers
required to work the blowing engines, or else to the drying stoves if
water power is available.
To promote a speedier smelting of the iron ore I propose to crush the
ore into pieces sufficiently small and mix the same with the said
powdered peat and press it into blocks which are either charged direct
into the furnace or first charred as described.
In these various drying processes I prefer to apply a fan of special
construction which takes in the air at one side only of the disc in a line

page_text: with the axis, and discharges it at right angles to the axis, and the shaft
and disc of the said fan will be supported by bearings on one side only of
the disc, or in other words the disc will overhang. This fan is well suited
for passing hot air or gases, and I propose to make it with broad vanes so
that it will circulate at a low pressure a larger volume of air or gases and
require little power to work it.