Aug., 1913
T H E JOCR.Y.4L OF I K D V S T R I A L A N D ENGINEERI,VG C H E M I S T R Y
peat fuel on a commercial scale in this country, so far without success. A careful analysis of the reasons for this failure, however, shows that not the peat, but easily remedied causes, largely due to ignorance and inexperience, were responsible for the failures. Such peat fuel as has been produced has always been sold readily at satisfactory prices. It, therefore, seems worth while to examine into the possibilities of peat as fuel and learn if it may not have a place as an auxiliary fuel, at least, in the parts of the country where it is found to relieve those consumers who are remote from coal mines from the high prices which other fuels now command. Upwards of ~j,ooO,oOo tons of peat fuel are produced and used annually in Europe, and its use for the production of steam and electric power is noticeably increasing in countries where peat is abundant, although as heretofore the great part of the peat fuel is used for domestic consumption. I n the United States peat is found in abundance in the region north of the Ohio River and east of the 100th Meridian. It also occurs in New York and New England and along the Atlantic Coastal plain t o Florida which has large peat deposits and on the Pacific Coast in California, Oregon, and Washington. It will be seen t h a t this distribution is such t h a t the peat deposits are almost entirely in States with little or no coal. The chief characteristic of peat which makes its production for fuel difficult is that it always contains a high water (from 85 to 9o per cent) which must be removed before the peat can be burned. All processes for preparing peat fuel are based on attempts to the water cheaply and certainly, ~h~~ are made difficult by the fibrous and woody material of which the peat is composed and by the peculiar water-holding PojTrer of the organic chemical compounds present. The water mixed of the solid mawith the peat cannot be removed from terials either by pressure or by centrifugal force below about 7 0 per cent. Commercial methods of producing peat fuel are limited a t the present time t o those which depend, in large part, a t least, on drying the peat by exposure t o the air. A few cases are reported the peat is partly air-dried and the moisture farther reduced by the use of artificial heat. The greater part of the peat fuel made and used in Europe is in the form of airdried bricks or blocks which have been either cut from the bog with special spade-like tools, or formed by machines which first grind or macerate the wet peat to a -~ pulp and then shape i t into bricks. Some processes spread the pulp on the surface of a drying ground in a thin sheet and form the bricks by marking the sheet with properly spaced markers. When partly dried, the peat is turned by hand labor, then piled in small heaps for a time, and finally stacked till used: the product is called machine peat. Recently devised machines seem likely t o eliminate most of the hand labor from the methods now in use abroad for making machine peat, and thus do away with one important objection t o its use in the United States. Air-dried machine peat is the kind of peat fuel used in power and industrial works in Europe, with very few exceptions. Briquetting peat has been tried in many countries and the most notable failures at peat fuel production in the United States have been of plants of this kind. A t present peat briquets are made in but very few places in Europe, and the quantity produced is small. A much larger and more costly plant is needed t o make briquets than is required for air-dried machine peat, and more money is required t o run it.
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Europe, there are well established peat coke plants, which have been running a number of years. The most promising use of peat is in gas producers for generating power or fuel gas. Plants equipped with properly designed gas producers, with or without apparatus for the recovery of by-products and located near the bogs from which the fuel is taken, are being successfully operated in a number of European countries t o generate electricity for lighting and power purposes in nearby towns. Some of these plants use peat with as high as 60 per cent moisture and are reported to recover enough ammonia as sulfate to pay the cost of getting the fuel and running the plant. The fuel value of perfectly dry peat ranges from about 7 , 0 0 0 to above 11,000 B. t. u. This is reduced by the presence of moisture and high ash content. It would seem that our peat resources are well worth developing whenever additional fuel supplies are needed for the development of the country. CHARLESA. DAVIS BCREAUOF .MINES WASHINGTON. D. C.
OF LENGTHENED SUBSTITUTION OF MEKER BURNER FOR BLAST LAMP IN CARBON DETERMINATIONS For some time several platinum crucibles mere in use in this laboratory for the determination of carbon by direct combustion. Blast lamps were used as the source of heat, the usual precautions being observed for flame regulation. The crucibles were used continuously until the bottoms began to crack or became appreciably Pervious to gas. They were repaired in every by the Same Company, the weight of the newly repaired crucibles and the thickness of the bottoms being uniform. The average working life under these conditions covered five hundred to six hundred combustions per crucible, the maximum being about nine hundred. X k e r burners were substituted with entire success for the blast lamps. After five thousand combustions had been made in each crucible, one became slightly pervious t o gas. The use of this crucible was discontinued shortly afterwards, the others being in good condition, R. J. WYSOR,Chief Chemzst BETHLEHEM STEELCo. SOUTH BETHLEHEM, P.4.
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PEAT CHARCOAL OR COKE
Machine peat may be coked in proper retorts and wood alcohol, acetic acid, ammonia and tar and tar derivatives may be recovered as by-products. The charcoal thus obtained is equal to first-rate wood charcoal for metallurgical work. I n
SYNTHETIC TANNIN Consul Benjamin F. Chase, Leeds, England advises that what is said to be a successful synthetic tannin has been discovered by Dr. Edmund Stiasny, assistant professor of the leather industries laboratories of the University of Leeds. The new tannin, which is called Neradol, is made from tar distillation products, the synthesis being carried out by sulfonating cresylic acid and combining i t then with formaldehyde. The white color of the Neradol-tanned leather and the brightening and bleaching effect of Neradol when used in combination with other tannins (vegetable and chrome) are especially noteworthy. The Leather Trades' Review states: Neradol is somewhat similar to ordinary tanning extract, and forms a light brown solution in cold water. It is a pure tannin of 30 per cent strength according t o the hide powder method, and can be used in smaller quantities to obtain the same effects as those a t present produced by the ordinary agents. Dr. Stiasny has made a series of tests on hides and sheep and calf skins and has recently showed samples of leather ranging . from light glazed kid to sole leather produced either with synthetic tannin alone, or with it in combination with vegetable tannin, chrome, or wood-pulp liquors. In every case the product appeared to be satisfactory, the leather being supple, fine, and
