rks, belonging to the Bavarian
Government, are on the Haspelmoor, situated between Augsburg and Munich.
According to Ruehlmann, who examined them at the command of the
Hanoverian Government in 1857, the method is as follows:--1. The bog is
laid dry by drains and the surface is cleared of bushes, roots, and
grass-turf, down to good peat. 2. The peat is broken up superficially to
the depth of about one inch, by a gang of three plows, propelled by a
portable steam engine. 3. The peat is further pulverized by a harrow,
drawn by a yoke of oxen. 4. In two or three days after harrowing, the
peat is turned by an implement like our cultivator, this process being
repeated at suitable intervals. 5. The fine and air-dry peat is gathered
together by scrapers, and loaded into wagons; then drawn by rope
connected with the engine, to the press or magazine. 6. If needful, the
peat, thus collected, is further pulverized by passing it through
toothed rollers. 7. The fine peat is now introduced into a complicated
drying oven, see figures 5 and 6. It falls through the opening _T_, and
is moved by means of the spirals along the horizontal floors _O_, _O_,
falling from one to another until it emerges at _Q_. The floors, _O_,
_O_, are made by wide and thin iron chambers, through which passes waste
steam from an engine. The oven is heated further by hot air, which
circulates through the canals _K_, _K_. The peat occupies about one hour
in its passage through the oven and falls from _Q_, into the press,
having a temperature of from 120 deg. to 140 deg.Fahrenheit. The press employed
at Staltach is essentially the same as that now used at the Kolbermoor,
and figured on p. 125. It is a powerful eccentric of simple
construction, and turns out continuously 40 finished peats per minute.
These occupy about one-fourth the space of the peat before pressing, the
cubic foot weighing about 72 lbs. The peats are 7 inches long, 3 inches
wide, and one half to three quarters of an inch thick, each weighing
three quarters of a pound. Three presses furnish annually 180,000 cwt.
of condensed peat, which is used exclusively for firing locomotives. Its
specific gravity is 1.14, and its quality as fuel is excellent.
Ruehlmann estimated its cost, at Haspelmoor in 1857, at 8-1/2 Kreuzers,
or a little more than 6 cents per cwt., and calculated that by adopting
certain obvious improvements, and substituting steam power for the labor
of men and cattle, the cost might be red