IMPROVE- MENTS IN PREPARING PEAT OR PEAT EARTH." MENTS IN PREPARING PEAT OR PEAT EARTH
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hunt, of the Ewell Powder Mill, Ewell,
in the County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING PEAT OR PEAT EARTH."
MENTS IN PREPARING PEAT OR PEAT EARTH."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hunt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th July 1873.
I, JAMES HUNT, of the Ewell Powder Mill, Ewell, in the County of
Surrey, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING PEAT OR PEAT EARTH," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing peat or
peat earth. For this purpose I first take raw peat or peat earth and dry
it in sheds, or use artificial heat, or before drying I pass the peat or peat
earth through a machine which macerates all the fibrous matter. To
accomplish this I use a pulping beater similar to those used in the

page_text: manufacture of paper pulp, I then dry the macerated material by any
suitable means.
The macerated peat or peat earth when dry I reduce to a fine powder,
this I call peat meal or peat dust. This meal or dust may then
be put into suitable moulds to form lumps or blocks and subjected
to mechanical pressure. The peat meal or peat earth may also be used
for foundry purposes.
For grinding the next into dust I
ou will stanna.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Hunt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HUNT, of the Ewell Powder Mills, Ewell, in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said James Hunt, Her special license that I, the
said James Hunt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Hunt, 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 PREPARING PEAT
OR PEAT EARTH," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
James Hunt, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Hunt, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :—
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing peat or
peat earth. For this purpose I take peat or peat earth (which may
either be fresh dug or may have been partially dried), and pass it
through a machine to macerate all the fibrous matter. I then dry the
macerated material and afterwards reduce it to a fine powder which may
be used for moulding purposes in foundries, or it may be compressed
into moulds to form blocks suitable for use as fuel, or the powder or
meal may be used for coloring or for other uses.
The way in which I prefer to carry out the above process is to take
fresh dug peat or peat earth and put it into bags, and press the bags of
peat to remove as much of the water as can be pressed out by hydraulic
or mechanical pressure. The peat is afterwards, when taken out of the
bags, put under edge runners to crush or macerate the peat, and it is
then dried and ground into powder as herein-after described. Or in
order to macerate the peat or peat earth I use a pulping beater similar
to those used in the manufacture of paper pulp.
The beater is composed of a drum, say about two feet six inches in
diameter, which carries upon its circumference a number of blades,
which as the drum revolves are carried past a number of fixed blades
ranged in the arc of a circle below the drum and parallel to its axis, in
such manner that the blades on the drum shall as they are moved past
the fixed blades be brought into close contact therewith. The drum is
caused to revolve rapidly, say at about 180 revolutions a minute, and
the peat as it is fed up by hand to the drum is as the drum revolves cut
up by the blades and thereby thoroughly macerated. The peat or peat
earth macerated in this manner or by edge runners as above described,
or by other suitable macerating machinery, is then dried; this I effect
by preference on perforated drying floors similar to those used for drying
malt, and when dry I reduce it to meal or powder by grinding, using by
preference edge runners for this purpose, but ordinary mill stones or
other means for reducing the macerated and dried peat to powder may
be adopted.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
performing the same I would have it understood that I claim the

page_text: preparation of peat or peat earth into a meal or powder by the means
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hunt, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.