Gysser's method._[25]--Rudolph Gysser, of Freiburg, who was charged
with the erection of the works at Willaringen just alluded to, invented
a portable hand-machine on the general plan of Weber, but with
important improvements; and likewise omitted and varied some details of
the manufacture, bringing it within the reach of parties of small means.

In the accompanying cuts, (figs. 12, 13, and 14), are given an elevation
of Gysser's machine, together with a bird's-eye view and vertical
section of the interior mechanism.

[Illustration: Fig. 13.]

[Illustration: Fig. 14.]

It consists of a cast iron funnel _c d i_ of the elevation, (fig. 12),
having above a sheet iron hopper _a b_ to receive the peat, and within a
series of six knives fastened in a spiral, and curving outwards and
downwards, (figs. 13 and 14); another series of three similar knives is
affixed to a vertical shaft, which is geared to a crank and turned by a
man standing on the platform _j k_; these revolving knives curve upwards
and cut between and in a direction contrary to the fixed knives; below
the knives, and affixed to the shaft a spiral plate of iron and a
scraper _m_, (fig. 13), serve to force the peat, which has been at once
minced and carried downwards by the knives, as a somewhat compressed
mass through the lateral opening at the bottom of the funnel, whence it
issues as a continuous hollow cylinder like drain-tile, having a
diameter of four inches. The iron cone _i_, held in the axis of the
opening by the thin and sharp-edged support _g h_, forms the bore of the
tube of peat as it issues. Two men operate the machine; one turning the
crank, which, by suitable gearing, works the shaft, and the other
digging and throwing in the peat. The mass, as it issues from the
machine, is received by two boys alternately, who hold below the opening
a semi-cylindrical tin-plate shovel, (fig. 15), of the width and length
of the required peats, and break or rather wipe them off, when they
reach the length of 14 inches.

[Illustration: Fig. 15.]

[Illustration: Fig. 16.]

The formed peats are dried in light, cheap and portable houses, Fig. 17,
each of which consists of six rectangular frames supported one above
another, and covered by a light roof. The frames, Fig. 16, have square
posts at each corner like a bedstead, and are made by nailing light
strips to these posts. The tops of these posts are obtusely beveled to
an edge, and at the bottom they are notch