ON PEAT AND ITS PROFITABLE
UTILISATION.*

BY ROBERT M. ALLOWAY, M.A.

so neglected as it is.

the same space of drying-ground as could produce but one only of common turf.

My peat coal is as portable as pit coal, whereas common turf is almost unportable, at least to any distance. In place of compressing machinery with hot plates or flues, &c., for drying, I have enlisted the services of three grand, natural, wonder

workers who do what I want without cost or payment, viz., in summer the sun and the wind, and in winter the rain. The rain lends great help to cess, and the sun and the wind dry my products the mashing or pulping, which is my first proin much less time than any artificial heat or wind machine ever did, and at a twentieth part of the

cost.

Thus my first simple process is the mashing or breaking up the raw material. Peat, being sponge-like, requires to be disintegrated in order done, would leave it in its sponge-like condition, to destroy its cellular conformation. This, if not and prevent its proper consolidation. Those, therefore, who attempted to compress raw peat without first having mashed it, could not but fail, as it would continue always liable to reimbibe moisture, even if the compressing machinery had succeeded, which none ever did.

creasing interest in peat, being fully persuaded of its great importance, and the wealth, commercially and agriculturally, that lies hidden in it. I do not put an extravagant value on it, but may THE subject of the paper which I am permitted premis under to offer to your notice this evening-the such as is generally looked for in similar underprofitable utilisation of peat-is one which, about takings. I had good facilities for experiment on 20 years ago, attracted considerable interest, and a deep peat bog of my own in the Queen's County, became at that time a matter of speculation and and, having become acquainted with several of inquiry in many places. If it had then had the the gentlemen who were successively trying their good fortune to have fallen into more practical but become conscious of the cause of their own plans, on visiting their factories I could not hands it might not have remained up to this period failures, which I frequently suggested to them; but each and all were too strongly biassed by their own pre-conceived notions, and wedded to them, to alter their workings in any way to my views. My prophecies, however, were eventually proved true in all cases by the successive failures if a peat coal could not be made without expensive of all, and I thence came to the conclusion that machinery and without artificial drying (thereby wasting other fuel), it could not be done to any profitable or practical result. Something then drew my attention to the effects of air drying by simple atmospheric evaporation, making the sun and the wind act for me more effectually, rapidly, and economically in consolidating and drying the wet peat than ever had been done, or I am certain ever can be done, by any kind of machinery to compress with, and by hot flues, kilns, or blasts to dry with. I was aware that much might be effected by atmospheric evaporation, but three companies and the erection of large factories, was agreeably surprised to find it exceed my exwhich, being worked on false principles, were very pectations. I then shortly brought my first ideas soon abandoned, their failure was at once attri- to a successful practical issue, the simplicity and readily in any of these. buted to the impracticability of the peat itself, and rapidity, as well as the economy of the process not to the errors and mistakes of the projectors. being very apparent, but yet only to be clearly This, of course, was unjust, and has placed much understood on being seen at work. difficulty in my way, or that of anyone who may endeavour to treat it properly and profitably, as it is an arduous task to overcome a popular pre-cable and unprofitable, Lord Willoughby d'Eresby's judice.

Perhaps some gentlemen present may recollect that, about the year 1850, two members of the House of Commons brought forward there certain striking but rather extravagant statements of the supposed value that lay hid in peat; so great, indeed, that even 500 per cent. of profit was alleged to be not too much to be expected from its manufacture. Clever but rather superficial letters were about the same time published in the late Mr. Dickens's "Household Words," and in "Chambers' Journal," entitled "The Irish California," "The Devonshire Dorado," "The True Tom Tiddler's Land," "Peatal Aggression," &c., which, being filled with flowery descriptions and too facile assertions of unascertained and unproved value, became soon suspected of being largely overdrawn, and caused peat and its utilisation to be looked on with indifference, if not with ridicule. When this was followed up by the establishment of two or

Almost everyone is aware that large tracts of land in England and Scotland, besides immense portions of Ireland, are covered over with this despised but really singular and valuable substance. Peat has been admitted by geologists to be of a nature akin to coal, in fact, coal in its primary condition. Coal having once existed on the surface of the earth, and being then spongy and full of moisture, like peat (as the ferns, horsetails, &c., found imbedded in it prove) became buried hundreds of fathoms deep by the upheavings and subsidings of that period, and thus being subjected to great pressure, the soft material was consolidated by the superincumbent weight, as well as by the increased heat from the internal fires of the globe. Reflecting on this theory of the formation of the coal beds it was not illogical for the first experimenters in peat to come to the too hasty conclusion that compression, joined with artificial drying (as if in imitation of nature), was the true method for treating it, in order to make it into an improved form, and which might be called peat coal.

As to the actual method of mashing that I employ, it is very simple, but very effective and economical. I constructed several machines myself for this purpose, all of which failed; I also attempted, ineffectually, to make use of existing machines, such as are employed for mortar and for working up brick-clay, &c. The peat, from its peculiar nature, will not break up or mix It is of a greasy and india-rubber-like tenacity. Thus, having failed to invent a mashing machine myself, or adapt

any other known one, I struck out a simple mode In consequence of the experiments and convic- of mashing by hand, the rapidity and effectivetions above alluded to, I discarded, as impracti-ness of which in pulping the raw peat must be seen to be fully appreciated. hydraulic press, Cobbold's cylindrical churn, The peat-bank being opened in the way usual Glynn's steam rams, &c., with all kinds of in common turf cuttings, I place one man to dig hot air, blasts, heated tables, hot flues, it in large sods, which he throws over to six kilns, &c., and simplified, step by step, others who are opposite to him in line, each an economical, common-sense, working plan armed with a wooden mallet, having a long on plain scientific principles, by which a dense, handle. Each man strikes the sod thrown to him, portable, wood-like (rather than coal-like) sub- and by a few blows completely mashes it up. The stance can be made at once from the soft, wet peat thus broken up is shovelled at once into an peat, consolidated without pressure, and dried in adjoining waterhole, from whence a similar bank a few days (generally three or four) by atmo- of peat had been previously taken, and had bespheric evaporation alone. In arriving at this decome in consequence partly filled with water. sirable result I always kept in mind the laws of There it remains melting into a thick pulp, until capillary attraction and atmospheric evaporation, required for moulding. This mashed up peat which govern so many matters of daily occurrence absorbs all the water, and when the moulding small and great. commences in April, it is generally of about the proper consistency. It is then shovelled up on the adjoining bank, by a man who stands on the pulp by the aid of large foot boards, like snow shoes. The man on the bank wheels it off in light, but peculiarly-constructed barrows, to the drying tables, where he quickly discharges the wet peat on light boards, like mortar boards, from whence the moulders (women, girls, or boys), each take up as much of it as possible in their hands, give the portion so taken up two or three rapid slaps of the upper hand, and quickly place the "pat" on the table, each fresh "pat" just touching its neighbour. As the "pats" dry, which they do very rapidly, they shrink asunder, whereby the air passes more freely between them. This slap of the hand (particularly the soft hands of women and children) is the only method I ever found effectual in driving the peat together, and putting it into a proper condition for having its moisture evaporated by the atmosphere and its mashed up particles condensed by contraction. No machine has ever been produced to do this, nor in my opinion likely to be. Peat balls or bricks thrown from any kind of machine come out full of cracks, and tumble to pieces as they dry.

My process consists of two plain principles, which I trust will not be despised for their simplicity, nor for their appearance of being only improvements on the old barbarous method of air-drying peat, which generally takes from three to four months. There is, in reality, almost nothing absolutely "new under the sun," not even electricity, animal magnetism, or photography; but, in all and each of those arts, such improvements have been made in the first rude ideas or discoveries respecting them, that their present marvellous perfection has been accomplished by gradual improvements, and are acknowledged to be the same now as if they were

One of the first to turn his talents and ample pecuniary resources to this matter was the father of the late Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. He invented a very powerful compressing machine, which he imagined would press all the water out of the peat, and leave it in a dry condition. absolutely new. His machine, however, was found in practice to It may be remarked that my process appears press more of the moisture into the peat than out to be little more than the old hand-turf method of it, and finally his plans were found to be quite improved, which, of course, I cannot altogether erroneous, and his machinery useless. Notwith-gainsay; but then, if so, the improvement is as standing his failure several others followed him great and as important, and carries as much difwith more or less modifications of his ideas, but ference as there exists between the amount of one all still working on the erroneous notion that com- to forty, or between three days, in point of drying, pression was the only true method, Nature herself and three months. My manufacture of peat differs (as was argued) pointing it out in the formation of from the old method of making common, hand the coal beds. Nature, no doubt, is a grand guide turf, inasmuch as that the former is completed in most matters, but need not be too slavishly and dried in three days, the latter taking three followed, and above all must not be misunderstood. months. One crop only of common turf can be My drying tables are constructed of a frame If Nature is to be fully followed in this case, all raised from the same plot of ground in the work of wood, each 36ft. long by 4ft. wide, and of the conditions of time and place which accom- season, whereas from thirty to forty crops of a convenient height for the moulders to stand at, panied their formation should be present also, mine can be taken in the same period. By this I generally about 2ft. Gin. These tables are comwhich, of course, is not the case, nor ever can mean, that from (say) one acre of bogland but one pletely in the open air, and uncovered by any be. Compression, therefore, by machinery upon single crop of common turf covering it all over, sheds, which would only impede the drying. This the plans invented by Lord Willoughby d'Eresby can be raised and dried in the same year. Com-framework is covered crosswise by common deal and carried on by all other experimenters in peat mon "turf" or peat, in large sods, requires about 4ft. plastering laths. I found that the dry wooden who followed him, up to the present day, having three months to dry, and, consequently, there lath absorbed the moisture and aided the drying failed to produce anything really profitablo or almost never occurs so fine a season as to allow of better than wire netting or any other material useful, a practical man will naturally turn his at- a second crop being properly saved. In my pro- that I tried. These laths are nailed down to the tention to something else, which I have en-cess, the drying season lasts from five to six framework at about in. asunder, so that the air deavoured to do, and consider that I have fully can pass freely upwards or downwards. When succeeded in effecting it. the "pats

For the last twenty years I have taken an in

Read before the Society of Arts, November 20,

months, and as, on an average, two crops per
week may be counted on, and there being more
than twenty available weeks, between thirty and
forty crops will be the return (which, in fact, has
always been done at my model manufactory) from

are dry, on the third or fourth day, one man or boy pushes them off the tables very rapidly into a long wheel or hand-barrow on the other side, by which they are conveyed into open

lattice-work wooden sheds, which are built conveniently adjoining for storage, for and very soon after are fit for sale and use.

The moulding is carried on from about April to November. It is easy and healthful work. The peat is dried and the tables cleared generally on the fourth day after being moulded, and the peat-coal raked off and put in the store-houses, when the tables are immediately refilled with a fresh batch of wet "pats," and so on through the entire season, until the frosts and long nights come on at the end of October, when the moulding ceases and the pulping for the next year's work

commences.

contain sufficient raw material for forty to fifty
years' work. A brisk wind and unimpeded sun-
shine are nowhere to be found in greater perfec-
tion than on a large open bog, where almost every
day in the year there is more or less breeze and
motion of the air, which in my process is better
than dull sunshine. Both sunshine and breeze
together are of course perfection, and perform
wonders in the way of drying the "pats."

prohibitory freight upon it. I found the freight on peat to be 12s. per ton between Portarlington Station (Queen's County) and Dublin, only about 40 statute miles. On remonstrating with the board of directors of the Irish Great Southern and Western Railway on this point, and sending them a few bags of my peat coal, as a sample, to their board room, they were so pleased with its appearance, portability, and cleanliness, that they volunTo sum up, the peculiar advantages of my pro- tarily agreed to carry it to Dublin for 8d. per ton cess are that the peat coal can be made so in- less than pit coal. If it were largely manufactured expensively as to afford a certain and remunera- I have no doubt but that all other railway comtive profit in three or four days, and is capable of panies would do the same or make the freight even being sent anywhere over the world in bags like less, and give liberal encouragement to a product This healthful and profitable employment of coal; that it is cleaner and freer from smuts and of such universal consumption. young boys and girls, from 10 to 15 years of age, sulphurous smoke than coal; that thirty to forty may be a matter pleasing and interesting to some; crops of it can be taken where only one crop of and if my peat process should be carried out on a common turf can be produced in the same season; large scale, it would prove to be an admirable that it is cheaper, more portable, and better every industrial school, and afford excellent, healthy way than common turf, and can compete with employment for children of that age, who generally are unequal to and unfit for the hard pit coal anywhere but at the pits' mouth, or in places in close proximity to coal districts. In addrudgery of common farm-work or factory-work,dition to the above it will afford opportunity for and for whom there is so little profitable, and at that long-sought object, the profitable utilisation the same time wholesome work, to do anywhere. of the vast peat wastes of these countries, parThe poor-houses, particularly in Ireland, are ticularly in Ireland, where there are three filled with sturdy but idle boys and girls, and I millions of acres covered by peat, while it would could suggest a plan by which the rates could be afford remunerative and yet healthful employrelieved from the cost of maintaining these poor ment for men, women, and above all children, little jail-birds, and which would change them with handsome profits to the employer and capi

into different creatures in a short time.

talist.

I have in my possession a considerable number of testimonials as to its value. I will, with your permission, read two or three of the shortest of these, and I hope I am not abusing your patience; but I wish to allude to this matter in every possible point, and explain its difficulties and the way to overcome them.

The first and shortest is from a gentleman of high position, the Chief Superintendent of the Government Valuation Office in Ireland. He writes:-"I consider Mr. Alloway's peat excellent and better than any other I have yet tried."

The third and last that I shall trouble you with is from Mr. David M'Dowall, the proprietor of large saw mills and corn mills, worked by powerful steam engines, in Dublin. He first gives his opinion of it as a domestic fuel and then as a steam generator, viz. :

"Patent Saw and Corn Mills, Montgomery-street, Dublin. "Your peat fuel is first class for house purposes. divided what you sent me amongst a few friends, and all are loud in their praise of it. I cannot give an opinion about it for steam yet, but I would like to get 5 tons of it for that purpose. If you succeed, and which I have no doubt you will, it will be a great boon for Ireland.

Another is from one of our Irish judges, formerly well known in Parliament, which runs thus:-"Thanks for the peat, which I have received and tried. It burns clearly, steadily, and As to pit-coal, of course I do not mean to inThe moulders get so dexterous in a few days that slowly, without waste, and, as far as I can judge, terfere in any way with its position in public they can earn much better wages, with less toil, leaves no unpleasant deposit of ashes or otherwise. estimation, nor to detract from its wonderful difficulty, or hard work, than they could at any I hope it will turn out a profitable speculation, not value and importance to England and the whole other kind of farming employment. I may fairly only on your account but in the interests of the world, but I may say that the peat-coal which I call this a species of farm work, to which it is country.' offer to your notice might be preferred by many much more similar than to any kind of factory (if to be had in large quantities in the general work, as the term is generally understood. The market) as a domestic fuel, being much cleaner feasibility of rapid hand moulding was first sugthan pit-coal, and untainted by noxious gested to my observation on seeing the boys at gases, which are deleterious to health, and Woolwich Arsenal making copper caps for the notoriously injurious to furniture, pictures army. A few years ago they were made there in &c. The preliminary expenses required' large quantities altogether by handwork, and it for establishing a full sized working manufactory was surprising and interesting to remark the would not be a fiftieth (I may safely say) of those quickness and facility with which such small arnecessary for opening a coal pit, and also with- ticles passed through the manipulation of those I out future risks or chances to calculate or allow smart little boys. My peat "pats" being much for. All here is open and visible work on the larger, and not requiring such dexterity of finger, earth's surface. In fact, the first outlay on the are consequently much easier to be formed into tables, storehouses, &c., would be less than that the proper shape and size. Most people would be required to stock a common farm, not to speak of well pleased at seeing the young girls and boys mining or other expensive kinds of manufacture. whom I have trained healthfully and lightly emThis peat coal has also been pronounced by com- ployed at the moulding. The whole process being petent authorities to be a first-class fuel for gene-done by task or piecework the cost of labour can rating ste: m. If it should ever become the be ascertained to a fraction almost, while the exgeneral fuel of the large cities of England, then penses in any method hitherto attempted by maLondon, Edinburgh, and Dublin, &c., would, I chinery have been quite undefined, and a certain am convinced, enjoy as pure atmospheres as Paris mystery attached to them, besides requiring or Brussels. A great deal has been written and more hands to attend to them than I require withspoken about encouraging the industrial resources out machinery in making an equal quantity of of Ireland. Here is one of the foremost and most fuel. peculiar of them calling aloud to be utilised. Why may it not bo? If my process be not what I state, let it go. But if, on strict investigation (which may be made and proven on the spot, where it can be seen at work), it shall be found not to be exaggerated in its value, I cannot understand why it should not be carried out, when millions are every day spent on matters that are comparatively unremunerative, and accompanied with risks and chances which frequently make losses the rule and profits the exception.

My peat farming can also compare favourably with common tillage farming, or stock farming. The peat is not liable to be damaged by the thousand ills that land produce is heir to. It cannot be injured by blights, birds, vermin, or insects, like corn or green crops. It is proof against diseases and fluctuations in value, or accidents, like cattle, &c. Even the worst kind of wet summer weather will merely delay the drying for a day or two.

cess.

The following outline of statistics may be at present sufficient to give a general idea of the proI may premise that it is by the number of drying tables that my calculations are made as to the size of a manufactory. A full-sized one should consist of 10,000 tables, each 36ft. long by 4ft. wide, constructed simply of substantial wood framework. These 10,000 tables would turn off

in the season (say from March or April to November) about 50,000 tons of peat coal (about five tons per annum on average being made from each table). This, if sold at only 10s. per ton (a very low rate) would give a profit of 20 per cent.

This full sized manufactory would cost in outlay on plant as near as possible £10,000, a comparatively moderate sum, and would require about 100 aeres of deep poat bog, which would

The first and only expenditure necessary is for putting up the drying apparatus, viz., the tables and the lattice work wooden store sheds. The cost of erecting those may be calculated by the number of tables, at, as nearly as possible, 20s. for every table, which includes the cost of erecting the required number of sheds for storing the peat coal in, according as it becomes dry on the tables every three or four days. Thus, £10,000 would be ample capital for the establishment of a full-sized manufactory, consisting of 10,000 tables, with all necessary adjuncts of sheds, implements, short roads, &c. These 10,000 tables would produce about 50,000 tons of peat coal in each season. The money at first expended in labour would be available again in most places in a month or two, and could thus be turned over three or four times in the year, carrying, of course, each time a profit of at least 20 per cent. In localities where pit coal is scarce and dear the selling price at the works might be fairly increased to 12s. or 14s. per ton, which would add very considerably to the profit. The tables, and store sheds, and store houses, when once substantially erected, would last for many years (perhaps 30 to 40, or longer) with a mere trifle for occasional repairs to the laths and woodwork, on which there would be but little "wear and tear."

The peat coal is so condensed, and thereby so reduced in bulk, that one cart or dray can carry as much value of fuel in it as ten similar conveyances could of common turf. The same proportion holds in carriage by railway, canal, or long sea, as well as in storage. It will also not occupy more space than coal in transit; a railway truck that conveys 5 tons of coal will also carry 5 tons of the peat coal. Railway companies generally decline to carry common "turf," or at least put a

"DAVID M'DOWALL."

I then sent him a larger lot, and received the following:

:

"I have used a good deal of your peat fuel in my house, and we prefer it before the best house cently, and, although my boilers are not so suitable coal. I have also tried it for steam purposes refor it, being made purposely for burning sawdust, I am persuaded that where tubular boilers are used, either on land or sea, it would be much preferable to either coke or coal, and would be found but wish you every success with your invention a first-class fuel for generating steam. I cannot (decidedly a good one), and I will most heartily

join in a company to carry it out.

"I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours, "DAVID M'DOWALL. "P.S.-All engineers know very well that tubular boilers require less flame than cylindrical ones, but the more extreme heat the better. Hence the use of coke; it is the very thing your peat is adapted for. "D. M'D."

As to the minutia of the cost of manufacture, in case any gentleman present might wish to know it, I will add the following particular items of the manipulation as close as I can here:

Ilarly in bridge or pier building, it is customary and son, mantequisito strength of block is by the distinguished chemist of Heidelberg. Its

BURNING GAS WITHOUT THE AID OF A of Birmingham (all of whose results I have

T the operations of the chemical laboratory the true principle of burning this mixture, so as
HERE is probably no more important era in
than that of the introduction of the lamp as a to obtain a maximum effect; the burner, however,
source of heat for a large number of chemical ope- with its furnace arrangements, is unavoidably of
rations, and that without the aid of a blast. Ber- a form and on a scale limiting its application.
zelius was doubtless the first to accomplish much The usual form of the Bunsen burner, with the
in this direction, which he did by the agency of rosette and register, when required, bids fair to
the lamp that so commonly bears his name, and hold its own against any other form for general
which, more or less modified, is still in use where purposes, and whatever modifications may be
the ordinary illuminating gas is not to be had. made on it should be of such a character as not
about seventy years it is only within a compara-modifications are now in daily use in my labora-
Although illuminating gas has been in use for to entrench on its simplicity. One or two of these

tory, for which there is no claim to any special originality, nor are they intended to supplant the ordinary form.

As simple an instrument as the Bunsen burner appears to be, its principles and effects are well worthy of being carefully studied.

As the gas passes from the small orifices* in the lower part of the burner, and mixes with the air drawn in at the lower opening, and passes out at the open end of the tube, it usually contains not quite enough oxygen for its complete combustion, and requires free access of air to the outer portion of the flame to complete the combustion; yet even with this, the flame is hollow in its lower portion, having a cool centre, its most intense heat being at about 3in. or 4in. above the end of the tube in the smaller Bunsen burners, and 8in. or 10in. in the largest size. If a proper excess of air is not allowed to the flame, as sometimes happens in some of the furnace connections occasionally used with Bunsen's burners, acetylene is formed from the imperfect combustion, which is recognised by its disagreeable odour, or by collecting some of the gas formed during the combustion; the presence of acetylene may be rendered evident by a small amount of a solution of ammoniacal cuprous

chlorid.

The best heating effects of the gas used in the ordinary round Bunsen burner, when employed in the heating of crucibles and other vessels, are not obtained; yet in the great majority of cases, the small loss of gas is not worth considering, especially as to obtain better results in most cases would only complicate this beautifully simple To get the best effects of heat, we must imitate the principle applied in the Argand burner, namely, to flatten down the exit of the mixed gases. It was by following out this principle that Mr. Gore was enabled to make a burner having a number of radial flat orifices, as represented in fig. 1, the

instrument.

FIG. 1.

The openings at the exit of Gore's burner.

air from without having free access to the flame along the entire length of the slit openings; the numbers of slits used are more numerous than those represented in the figure. With the flame from this burner introduced into a certain form of refractory cylinders, cast iron can be melted in a crucible, without the aid of a blast, as has already been stated; the little chimney to the furnace being 2in. in diameter, and 4ft. long. This burner and its furnace is of but limited application, and

the amount of gas consumed considerable.

The principle, however, of the above burner is introduced in constructing a more simple form and the flattened orifice is now used in the construction of what I conceive to be the best form of furnace for heating glass tubes for organic analysis and other purposes; such furnaces are made by Weisnig, of Paris, and Desaga, of Heidelberg.

The use of the flattened burner is not fully appreciated; its advantages are, that there is no cold point in the flame, and the burner can be brought much nearer to the object to be heated, within 20 to 25 millimetres for the small-sized burners. In this burner as usually made, the opening is too broad, experience having convinced me that a slit 2 millimetres across and about 40 millimetres in length is the most effective one for a small-sized burner, consuming about 5 cubic feet per hour; this burner is represented in fig. 1, which can be used with the ordinary tube, by detaching the tube with the flattened orifice.

The outlet for gas may be in the form of crossed slits (or two small holes of 1-32in. diameter each) for the small size burner, the length of tube being about 4 to 44 in. long; the next larger has four openings (about 1-25in. diameter each) and the tube about 5in. long.

for heating platinum crucibles in silica fusions, &c.,
and with such a burner, consuming 5 to 6 cubic
feet of gas per hour, I conduct most effectually all
silica fusions in one hour or less, taking care to
protect the crucible from the current of the air
by a properly constructed short conical chimney,
which chimney can be made of soap stone, sheet
iron, or any other convenient material.

3. The necessity for employing waterproofing agencies will not be so essential, and when used their preservative action will be much greater.

4. The damage which always, more or less, accompanies the ordinary treatment of the fibre will be obviated.

If this system is applied generally to the fibrous substances in their raw or natural state many important advantages will accrue :

1. There will be a much greater yield of fibre from the same weight of plants than if the process of water-retting be resorted to.

2. The separability or fineness of the fibre will be practicably realisable to its full extent.

3. The inherent tensile resistance or strength of the fibre will be conserved.

4. The discolouration of the fibre always more or less attendant on the water-retting process as well as the extra expense incurred by the measures adopted to remove it (scarcely ever effectual), will De entired obviated.

5. The enormous loss of time-the endless round

of operations-and withal the usual accompanying expenses to render cotton, linen, jute, and other textile materials marketable, will be for the most part avoided.

Thus flax which would only produce a fifty or sixty lea yarn, would, if a higher degree of filamentous division, or fineness, could be wrought upon it, yield yarn leas of higher numbers, and at the same time augment in a corresponding degree their market value.

As we stated in the commencement of this article, it was not intended to describe the more Although quality, which is really estimated by complicated methods of burning gas in furnaces fineness, is a salient feature of a fibre intended to be and by means of a blast, but to confine the remarks spun into a warp yarn, yet without inherent strength be made to accomplish all the requirements of the immense difficulty hitherto experienced in spinning to the simpler forms in every day use, which can the quality of fineness would be of little use; the usual laboratory operations, and when a higher warp yarn-the yarn which has to bear the principal heat is required, the furnace must be our re-stress in the weaving operation-will, by this course, whether burning gas, charcoal or coke. system, be completely removed; while that defect The burner represented in fig. 2 is the one I now in yarn, called the manufacturer's neap on the employ in heating the crucible in my method of thread, will, it is believed, be entirely obviated, and alkali determination with carbonate of lime and sal consequently a greatly increased value given to the ammoniac, which method, with its more recent modifications, will be published in a very short time. The description of it, with all the minute details of manipulation, being ready for the press.

W

UTILISING VEGETABLE FIBRES.

material.

When warp yarns, which under this system can be produced from the phormium tenax and many other strong and cheap fibres, equally with those made of the flax in general use, are spun clean, uniform or level and round, with the inherent strength of the fibre preserved in the thread, perfection has been attained-a thing scarcely, if at all possible, with fibre treated in the ordinary way.

IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLE-BOXES FOR
CARRIAGE AND CART WHEELS.
THE injuries arising from a spill on the road

E are glad to find that Dr. Cattell's system for utilising vegetable fibres is about to be developed in this country by a limited liability company. Preliminary trials and chemical analyses have been already made by eminent chemists which prove that the treatment the fibres undergo renders them of greater commercial value than those prepared by the present methods. It is well known by manufacthrough the breaking of an axle is a matter turers that silicious, resinous, cerumenous, albu- of great moment to persons who leave home with minous, parenchymatous, chlorophyllous, and other the intention of spending a pleasant day in the impurities should be expurgated to render the fibre country, and though many of them take the more available for the manufacture of textile materials. modern conveyance (the rail) still there are an The attempts which have been made to utilise the immense number who prefer the road for the great variety of fibrous substances abounding in such trip, as the country can be seen to a better adprodigious quantities in India, China, Africa, New vantage by a horse conveyance than from the Zealand, and other localities, have for the most part windows of a railway carriage. Now, in the case failed, inasmuch as while it was necessary to isolate the cellulose or fibre proper from its associated im- of breaking one of the axles of a railway carriage, purities, the fibre itself became so greatly deteriorated the chances are that from the position of the by oxidation, or by chemical reaction, as really to wheels little or no injury could occur to life or negative and render comparatively useless the object limb of any of the occupants, because the bearing intended. Fibres, yarns, and fabrics, treated by this surface of the axle on the bearing will in a great system, acquire an increased capacity for imbibing measure retain the wheel in a vertical position, and retaining colouring matter. Under this system but if it should lean to one side or the other, the surgical lint of first class quality can be manu- carriage has very little liability to become upset or factured from flax waste rapidly and very econo- thrown on its side; besides the axle is of great mically; for it must be observed that flax being the thickness in all its length, so that it is not so fibre for linen is undoubtedly the only proper material for lint, inasmuch as cotton consists of flattened likely to break. But the case is different with a twisted tubes without joints, the sharp edge of road vehicle, the axle is often thinned down by which has the effect of irritating the wounds to forging or turning to make it fit the fastening which it is applied; whereas flax consists of jointed clamps and the nave of the wheel, so that should cylindrical tubes incapable of giving rise to any the vehicle be overloaded the thinner or weakest such consequences. Under this system also-from part is often fractured by the jolting and motion the fact of the peculiar form of the flax fibre just of the vehicle over stones or an uneven road; described-a valuable material adapted for "milling" therefore greater care is required in the selection felting" can be produced-in appearance un- of the metal and the method of working or prewoollen goods manufactured with a fair proportion of distinguishable from wool-at a cheap rate. Hence paring it before hand, and even then the this and similar wool substitutes which are readily obtainable from other fibrous vegetable substances, will enable the public to procure them at a cheap rate. We understand that a material can be produced indistinguishable in appearance from cotton, and capable of being worked by cotton machinery. The production of a tenacious fibre for ropes, especially for mining purposes and the rigging of ships, has always been a matter ardently sought after, and it is estimated that fibre treated by this system will possess the following special advantages:1. A greater tensile resistance, estimated at 20 per cent., in ropes and cordage of equal thick

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absence of a flaw cannot always be guaranteed, so that means must be adopted to prevent the wheel leaving the vehicle should the axle break at any part.

Towards this end several inventions have been introduced from time to time, and all of them contained more or less points of importance. Among them were some improvements by Mr. E. Partridge, of Smethwick, near Birmingham. These mainly related to those axles known as the mail axle, such as are used for coaches, omnibuses, and similar vehicles. Now, however, this gentleman has invented and patented a capital improvement, which is applicable to axles for all kinds of carriages, carts, &c., by which the possibility of a wheel leaving the carriage should an axle break is entirely avoided. The invention consists in the

tightly as possible to prevent it working loose. another arm and a looper operating shaft; sixth, By this method the cup e is screwed up at first, a combination of a needle arm with a needle putting the wheel on as seen in fig. 4, and is never carriage; seventh, a combination of an index dial after removed for any purpose. It may even be and its operating lever with the comb bar, the fastened on by solder or otherwise, as it is impos- said lever being arranged to be operated by fricsible for any grit or dirt to get in, the other parts tional contact with the comb bar; eighth, a combeing all preserved by shields or appliances to bination of dogs provided with stop pins with the prevent it. The end of the axle g is threaded comb bar, and with index fingers serving to hold with right and left-handed screws for the recep- the dogs in place; and, ninth, an alarm appation of the nuts h and i, figs. 5 and 6, which bind ratus and its combination with the knitting maagainst each other, and are thus prevented work-chine, the purpose of such alarni apparatus being ing loose.