IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING PEAT FOR use as FUEL
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, of
Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Mining Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR
PREPARING PEAT FOR use as FUEL."
Sealed the 30th September 1873, and dated the 3rd April 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Charles Augustus
Henry Wolffram at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 3rd April 1878.
I, JOHN CHARles Augustus Henry WolfFRAM, of Blackheath, in
the County of Kent, Mining Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR
PREPARING PEAT FOR USE AS FUEL," to be as follows :—
This Invention has for its object to eliminate the moisture from peat
economically and so as to render its extended use as a fuel commercially
practicable. To this end the peat after it has been taken from the bog

page_text: is pulped in a pulping mill or apparatus so constructed as to destroy its
vascular structure, and thus to annihilate the action of the capillary forces
whereby under ordinary conditions the drying of the peat is immensely
retarded. The peat is then moulded into blocks, which are dried at the
ordinary atmospheric temperature under a suitable covering forming
part of the drying house or shed, and are gradually passed forward into
a regularly increasing temperature in the closed part of the house or
shed, wherein their drying is speedily effected by superficial evaporation,
so that the pores close up gradually and finally as they yield their
moisture, and thus the bulk of each block is reduced to about one-third
its original size, thereby effecting a condensation which no artificial
pressure can produce, and this is done by utilizing the natural atmo-
spheric currents so as to retain all the advantages of common air drying
without the disadvantages arising from changes of weather and the
direct action of the rays of the sun, and without causing the dis-
integration or partial breaking up of the blocks which arises when they
are submitted throughout to an uniform temperature so considerably
above that of the atmosphere as to convert their internal moisture
suddenly into steam whereby the cohesion of the component particles of
peat is destroyed.
In order to submit the blocks of peat to the steadily increasing
temperature required, I construct the drying house with either an endless
chain supported by a suitable platform and provided with projections,
or with shafting and teethed wheels taking into racks in the sides of the
carriages, or with equivalent arrangements whereby the carriages
carrying the trays or shelves upon which the peat is laid are moved
forward at a slow but uniform or uniformly intermittent rate, so as to
pass gradually onward from the entrance to the opposite end of the
drying house which throughout its length or nearly so is heated by
means of flues which are heated by suitable furnaces placed at intervals
of one hundred feet, or any other convenient distance or distances apart,
the sizes of furnaces, and areas of flues gradually increasing as the
further end of the drying house or chamber is approached. A current or
currents of cold air is or are drawn into and along the drying house, the
temperature of such air becoming gradually higher as it approaches the
further end of the drying house whence the heated air escapes up a tall
chimney shaft or shafts. In some cases the end of the drying house
furthest from that at which the carriages enter is surrounded by heated

page_text: flues whereby a very high temperature is maintained in such portion for
the purpose of baking the peat after it has been thoroughly dried in its
passage through the gradually increasing temperature of the drying
house as above described.
Peat, if suddenly exposed to a high temperature, becomes dis-
integrated, but if in the first instance it be submitted only to a
temperature but slightly exceeding that of the atmosphere and gradually
and regularly passed forward into a regularly increasing temperature,
that temperature may finally be as high as required without danger
of causing such disintegration or separation of the constituent parts of
the peat.
For discharging the dried and cooled cakes or blocks of peat from the
perforated shelves of the trucks I provide a suitable spout or shoot,
with stops or projections whereby the shelves are tilted to an angle
and the peat is shot along the spout or shoot just referred to, into the
storeroom or otherwise as may be most convenient, arrangements
being provided whereby the shelves are caused to resume their proper
position in time for receiving a fresh supply of peat to be dried at the
proper place.
In some cases after having dried the blocks or cak es of peat as
described I submit the same to the action of superheated steam for
the purpose of disengaging the greater part of the hydrocarbons and
thus coking the peat or converting it into what is known in France
as charbon roux, which may be advantageously employed in the manu-
facture of iron and for other uses. For this purpose I make use of a
suitable coking oven or ovens, and I supply steam from a boiler or
boilers to a coil or coils or equivalent contrivance wherein I cause such
steam to be superheated and from whence it passes by pipes capable of
being regulated as required into the coking ovens. These ovens are
provided with suitable doors, and I cause the trucks or carriages con-
taining peat to be coked to be placed in such ovens and the doors closed,
after which I admit the superheated steam into the ovens at a tem-
perature by preference of about five hundred degrees Fahrenheit, but
the temperature may be regulated to suit circumstances, as may likewise
the period during which the peat remains in contact with the superheated
steam, as described.

page_text: Suitable valves are provided for permitting the escape of the steam
from the ovens, from whence it may be passed through pipes or tubes
and utilized for heating the drying house or chamber in lieu of or
addition to the heated flues before mentioned; and such steam may
afterwards pass back to the feed water heater or condenser of the boiler
hailona
Suitable valves are provided for permitting the escape of the steam
from the ovens, from whence it may be passed through pipes or tubes
and utilized for heating the drying house or chamber in lieu of or
addition to the heated flues before mentioned; and such steam may
afterwards pass back to the feed water heater or condenser of the boiler
or boilers.
In some cases the coking chamber may be provided with shelves or
equivalent arrangements for containing the peat to be heated instead of
the latter being retained on the trucks or carriages.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CHARLES AUGUSTUS HENRY WOLFFRAM, of Blackheath, in the County
of Kent, Mining Engineer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Third day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three in the thirty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram,
Her special license that I, the said John Charles Augustus Henry
Wolffram, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Charles Augustus Henry Wolffram, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING PEAT FOR USE AS FUEL," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Charles Augustus
Henry Wolffram, 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

page_text: 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 Charles Augustus Henry
Wolffram, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particulary described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, and the
Sheet of Drawings therein referred to (that is to say) :—
This Invention has for its object to eliminate the moisture from peat
economically and so as to render its extended use as a fuel commercially
practicable. To this end the peat after it has been taken from the bog
is pulped in a pulping mill, such, for instance, as that well known as
Clayton's Patent or other suitable apparatus so constructed as to destroy
the vascular structure of the peat, and thus to annihilate the action of
the capillary forces whereby under ordinary conditions the drying of the
peat is immensely retarded. The peat is then moulded into blocks which
are dried at the ordinary atmospheric temperature under a suitable
covering forming part of the drying house or shed, and are gradually
passed forward into a regularly increasing temperature in the closed part
of the house or shed, wherein their drying is speedily effected by super-
ficial evaporation, so that the pores close up gradually and finally as they
yield their moisture, and thus the bulk of each block is reduced to about
one-third of its original size, thereby effecting a condensation which no
artificial pressure can produce, and this is done by utilizing the natural
atmospheric currents so as to retain all the advantages of common air
drying without the disadvantage arising from changes of weather and
the direct action of the rays of the sun, and without causing the dis-
integration or partial breaking up of the blocks which arises when they
are submitted throughout to a uniform temperature so considerably
above that of the atmosphere as to convert their internal moisture
suddenly into steam whereby the cohesion of the component particles
of peat is destroyed.
In order to submit the blocks of peat to the steadily increasing tem-
perature required I construct the drying house with either an endless
chain supported by a suitable platform and provided with projections, or
with shafting and teethed wheels taking into racks at the sides of the

page_text: carriages, or with equivalent arrangements, whereby the carriages
carrying the trays or shelves upon which the peat is laid are moved
forward at a slow but uniform or uniformly intermittent rate, so as
to pass gradually onward from the entrance to the opposite end of the
drying house, which throughout its length or nearly so is heated by
means of flues, which are heated by suitable furnaces placed at intervals
of one hundred feet, or any other convenient distance or distances apart,
the sizes of furnaces and areas of flues gradually increasing as the
further end of the drying house or chamber is approached. A current
or currents of cold air is or are drawn into and along the drying house,
the temperature of such air becoming gradually higher as it approaches
the further end of the drying house, whence the heated air escapes up
a tall chimney shaft or shafts.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a sectional elevation of a
double drying house or chamber arranged and fitted according to my
Invention; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same; Fig. 3 is a transverse
section thereof; and Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of one of the
arrangements for actuating the endless ropes or chains of the trains of
trucks or carriages.
The peat having been pulped in the pulping mills a and moulded into
blocks is arranged on the perforated shelves or trays of the trucks or
carriages 6 to which I lay no separate claim. These trucks or carriages
run on rails or trams c, and are provided with suitable clips for clipping
the endless ropes or chains d, which are supported by grooved pulleys
or antifriction rollers e, and pass at one end of the drying house or shed
round grooved pulleys ƒ (or drums), and at the other end round other
grooved pulleys g (or drums), each of whose shafts or axles h is provided
with a worm wheel i, actuated by a worm formed around a tube or
sleeve on a shaft 7 driven from an engine m, or other suitable motor.
Each worm may be thrown in or out of action by means of a clutch n
capable of being moved by a lever o along the shaft 1, but prevented
from turning thereon by a suitable feather p, as illustrated to an
enlarged scale in Fig. 4, which shows the arrangement with the worm
out of action. As the trucks or carriages 6 pass along under the
covering the blocks of peat are dried at the ordinary atmospheric
temperature until the trucks or carriages enter the closed parts r of the

page_text: 8
drying house, which is heated by means of flues & communicating with
furnacest arranged at each side at intervals of about one hundred feet
apart, more or less according to circumstances, the furnaces and flues
nearest the exit end of the drying house (or chambers) being the largest,
the next pair of furnaces and flues somewhat smaller, and so on, towards
the entrance end of the drying house (or chambers), the object being to
secure a temperature gradually higher and higher as the exit end of the
house (or chambers) is approached, as herein-before explained. The
necessary circulation of air through the drying house (or chambers) is
induced, partly by the action of the furnaces and partly by that of the
chimney shaft, which may, when necessary, be supplemented by a
suitable fan or fans or blowing apparatus, or in some cases a fan or fans
or blowing apparatus may be substituted for the chimney.
The trucks or carriages on reaching the exit end of the drying house
may be run on to a traversing carriage or platform running on rails or
trams in a suitable trench, and thence conveyed to a suitable store or
otherwise. The empty trucks may be returned by the railway c².
To prevent radiation of heat the roof of the drying house may be
lined or covered with felt. In some cases the end of the drying house
furthest from that at which the carriages enter may be surrounded by
heated flues, whereby a very high temperature may be maintained in
such portion for the purpose of baking the peat after it has been
thoroughly dried in its passage through the gradually increasing tem-
perature of the drying house, as above described. It will be evident
that instead of using two drying chambers side by side a single chamber
may be employed, or three or more chambers may be arranged in juxta-
position. It may also in some cases be found convenient to construct
the drying house of concrete. Peat, if suddenly exposed to a high
temperature becomes disintegrated, but if in the first instance it be
submitted only to a temperature but slightly exceeding that of the
atmosphere, and gradually and regularly passed forward into a regulary
increasing temperature, as above described, that temperature may finally
be as high as required without danger of causing such disintegration
or separation of the constituent parts of the peat.
For discharging the dried and cooled cakes or blocks of peat from the
perforated shelves of the trucks, I may provide a suitable spout or shoot
with stops or projections, whereby the shelves are tilted to an angle and

page_text: shot along the spout or shoot just referred to into the store room or
otherwise, as may be most convenient, arrangements being provided
whereby the shelves are caused to resume their proper position in time
for receiving a fresh supply of peat to be dried at the proper place, but
I lay no claim to this arrangement.
In some cases after having dried the blocks or cakes of peat as
described I submit the same to the action of superheated steam for the
purpose of disengaging the greater part of the hydrocarbons, and thus
coking the peat or converting it into what is known in France as
"charbon roux," which may be advantageously employed in the manu-
facture of iron and for other uses. For this purpose I make use of a
suitable coking oven or ovens, and I supply steam from a boiler or
boilers to a coil or coils, or equivalent contrivance, wherein I cause
such steam to be superheated, and from whence it passes by pipes
capable of being regulated as required into the coking ovens. These
ovens are provided with suitable doors, and I cause the trucks or
carriages containing peat to be coked to be placed in such ovens and
the doors closed, after which I admit the superheated steam into the
ovens at a temperature by preference of about five hundred degrees
centigrade, but the temperature may be regulated to suit circum-
stances, as may likewise the period during which the peat remains in
contact with the superheated steam, as described. Suitable valves are
provided for permitting the escape of the steam from the ovens, as will
be readily understood, and such steam may afterwards pass back to the
feed water heater of the boiler or condenser of the engine.
In some cases the coking chamber may be provided with shelves or
equivalent arrangements for containing the peat to be treated, instead of
the latter being retained on the trucks or carriages.
Having described the nature of my said Invention of " Improvements
in the Mode of and Apparatus for Preparing Peat for Use as Fuel," and
having explained the manner of carrying the same into practical effect,
I would observe that I do not confine myself to the precise details
herein-before described, so long as the distinctive characteristics of
my Invention be retained, with reference to which I claim,―
First. The mode of preparing peat for use as fuel by submitting it to
a gradually increasing temperature, as above described.

page_text: Secondly. The arrangement of apparatus for submitting peat to a
gradually increasing temperature, substantially as shewn in and described
with reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly. The treatment of peat by submitting it to the action of
superheated steam in suitable ovens for the production of charbon roux
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Charles Augustus Henry
Wolffram, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-three.