Lepreux in Paris, has invented a similar but more complicated machine, which is said to be very effective in its operation. According to Hervé Mangon, this machine, when worked by two men, raises and cuts 40,000 peats daily, of which seven make one cubic foot, equal to 5600 eet. The saving in expense by using this machine[19] is said to be 70 per cent., when the peat to be raised is under water.
11.—The Dredging of Peat.
When peat exists, not as a coherent more or less fibrous mass, but as a paste or mud, saturated with water, it cannot be raised and formed by the methods above described.
In such cases the peat is dredged from the bottom of the bog by means of an iron scoop, like a pail with sharp upper edges, which is fastened to a long handle. The bottom is made of coarse sacking, so that the water may run off. Sometimes, a stout ring of iron with a bag attached, is employed in the same way. The fine peat is emptied from the dredge upon the ground, where it remains, until the water has been absorbed or has evaporated, so far as to leave the mass somewhat firm and plastic. In the mean time, a drying bed is prepared by smoothing, and, if needful, stamping a sufficient space of ground, and enclosing it in boards 14 inches wide, set on edge. Into this bed the partially dried peat is thrown, and, as it cracks on the surface by drying, it is compressed by blows with a heavy mallet or flail, or by treading it with flat boards, attached to the feet, somewhat like snow shoes. By this treatment the mass is reduced to a continuous sheet of less than one-half its first thickness, and becomes so firm, that a man's step gives little impression in it. The boards are now removed, and it is cut into blocks by means of a very thin, sharp spade. Every other block being lifted out and placed crosswise upon those remaining, air is admitted to the whole and the drying goes on rapidly. This kind of peat is usually of excellent quality. In North Germany it is called "Baggertorf," i. e. mud-peat.
Peat is sometimes dredged by machinery, as will be noticed hereafter.
12.—The Moulding of Peat.
When black, earthy or pitchy peat cannot be cut, and is not so saturated with water as to make a mud; it is, after raking or picking out roots, etc., often worked into a paste by the hands or feet, with addition of water, until it can be formed into blocks which, by slow drying, acquire great firmness. In Ireland this product is termed "hand-peat." In Germany it is called "Formtorf," i. e. moulded peat, or "Backtorf," i. e. baked peat.
The shaping is sometimes accomplished by plastering the soft mass into wooden moulds, as in making bricks.
13.—Preparation of Peat Fuel by Machinery, etc.