Versmann's Machine[28]—This machine, see Fig. 20, was invented by a German engineer, in London, and was patented there in Sept., 1861. It consists of a funnel or hollow cone b, of boiler-plate, from one to two feet in diameter at top, and perforated with 200 to 300 small holes per square foot of surface, within which rapidly revolves an iron cone a, carrying on its circumference two spiral knives. The peat thrown in at the top of the funnel is carried down by the knives, and at once cut or broken and forced in a state of fine division through the holes of the funnel, as through a colander. The fine peat collects on the inclined bottom of the chamber d, whence it is carried by means of Archimedean screws to a moulding machine. The coarse stuff that escapes pulverization falls through e into the cavity c. It may be employed as fuel for the engine, or again put through the machine.
This machine effects a more perfect pulverization of the peat, than any other hitherto described. This extreme division is, however, unnecessary to the perfection of the product, and is secured at great expense of power. Through the opening at the bottom of the funnel, much unpulverized peat finds its way, which must be continually returned to the machine. Again, stones, entering the funnel, are likely to break or damage the spiral knives, which bear close to the walls of the funnel.
The pulverized peat must be moulded by hand, or by a separate instrument.
Buckland's Machine[29] is identical in principle with Versmann's, and in construction differs simply in the fact of the interior cone having spiral grooves instead of spiral knives. This gives greater simplicity and durability to the machine. It appears, however, to require too much power to work it, and can hardly equal other machines in the quantity of product it will deliver for a given expenditure. The ground peat yielded by it, must be moulded by hand, or by other machinery. This machine, we understand, has been tried near Boston, and abandoned as uneconomical.
The machines we have described are by no means all that have been proposed and patented. They include, however, so the author believes, all that have been put into actual operation, at the date of this writing, or that present important peculiarities of construction.
The account that has been given of them will serve to illustrate what mechanism has accomplished hitherto in the manufacture of peat-fuel, and may save the talent of the American inventor from wasting itself on what is already in use, or having been tried, has been found wanting. At present, very considerable attention is devoted to the subject. Scarcely a week passes without placing one or more Peat-mill patents on record. In this treatise our business is with what has been before the public in a more or less practical way, and it would, therefore, be useless to copy the specifications of new, and for the most part untried patents, which can be found in the files of our mechanical Journals.
14. Artificial Drying of Peat.
As we have seen, air-dry peat contains 20 to 30 and may easily contain 50 per cent. of water, and the best hot-made machine peat contains 15 per cent. When peat is used as fuel in ordinary furnaces, this water must be evaporated, and in this process a large amount of heat is consumed, as is well understood. It is calculated, that the temperature which can be produced in perfectly burning full-dried peat, compares with that developed in the combustion of peat containing water, as follows:—
| Pyrometric effect of perfectly dry peat | 4000° F. |
| Pyrometric effect of peat with 30 per cent. of water | 3240° F. |
| Pyrometric effect of peat with 50 per cent. of water | 2848° F. |
But, furthermore, moist or air-dried peat does not burn in ordinary furnaces, except with considerable waste, as is evident from the smokiness of its flame. When air-dried peat is distilled in a retort, a heavy yellow vapor escapes for some time after the distillation begins, which, obviously, contains much inflammable matter, but which is so mixed and diluted with steam that it will not burn at all, or but imperfectly. It is obvious then, that when a high temperature is to be attained, anhydrous or full-dried peat is vastly superior to that which has simply been cured in the open air.