tration: Fig. 9.--EXTER'S PEAT PRESS.]

C. Hodgson has patented in Great Britain a compressing-ram similar to
Exter's, and works were put up at Derrylea, in Ireland, some years ago,
in which Exter's process of manufacturing peat fuel appears to have been
adopted.

_Elsberg's Process._

Dr. Louis Elsberg, of New York City, has invented a modification of
Exter's method, which appears to be of great importance. His
experimental machine, which is in operation near Belleville, N. J.,
consists of a cylindrical pug-mill, in which the peat, air-dried as in
Exter's method, is further broken, and at the same time is subjected to
a current of steam admitted through a pipe and jacket surrounding the
cylinder. The steamed peat is then condensed by a pair of presses
similar to that just described, which are fed directly from the mill. In
this way the complicated drying oven of Exter is dispensed with. Elsberg
& Co. are still engaged in perfecting their arrangements. Some samples
of their making are of very excellent quality, having a density of 1.2
to 1.3.

The pressing of air-dry peat only succeeds when it is made warm, and is,
at the same time, moist. In Exter's original process the peat is
considerably dried in the ovens, but on leaving them, is so moist as to
bedew the hand that is immersed in it. It is, in fact, steamed by the
vaporization of its own water. In Elsberg's process, the air-dry peat is
not further desiccated, but is made moist and warm by the admission of
hot steam. The latter method is the more ready and doubtless the more
economical of the two. Whether the former gives a dryer product or not,
the author cannot decide. Elsberg's peat occurs in cylindrical cakes 2
inches broad, and one inch in thickness. The cakes are somewhat cracked
upon the edges, as if by contraction, in drying. When wet, the surface
of the cakes swells up, and exfoliates as far as the water has
penetrated. In the fire, a similar breaking away of the surface takes
place, and when coked, the coal is but moderately coherent.

The reasons why steamed peat admits of solidification by pressure, are
simply that the air, ordinarily adhering to the fibres and particles, is
removed, and the fibres themselves become softened and more plastic, so
that pressure brings them into intimate contact. The idea that the heat
develops bituminous matters, or fuses the resins which exist in peat,
and that these cement the particles, does not harmonize with the f