Facts about Peat as an Article of Fuel: With Remarks Upon Its Origin and Composition; the Localities in which it is Found ...Leavitt & Hunnewell, 1865 - 120 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abundance acres appear article of fuel ashes average bar iron bed of peat bituminous coal Bog of Allen burning carbon cent charred coal gas coke combustion condensed peat considerable Constitution Island contains County density deposits of peat depth dried eight employed Encyclopædia equal experiments extensive fifty acres five forests formation four France furnaces Geological half a mile heat hundred acres inches Ireland kilog Kinderhook kinds of fuel Königsbronn land lignite manufacture of iron marshes matter mile south mosses naphtha north-east numerous obtained ordinary patented peat charcoal peat coke peat occurs peat-bogs peat-charcoal Phillipston pig metal Pond prepared produced puddling puddling furnace Putnam County quantity remarks Report says six feet solidified south-west species square miles steam substance superior surface swamps thirty thousand acres thousand cords tion tons trees turf twenty valley vegetable wood charcoal yield
Popular passages
Page 39 - Hatfield moss, which appears clearly to have been a forest eighteen hundred years ago, fir-trees have been found ninety feet long, and sold for masts and keels of ships : oaks have also been discovered there above one hundred feet long. The dimensions of an oak from this moss are given in the Philosophical Transactions, No.
Page 40 - Semana, Ardennes, and several others, are now occupied by mosses and fens ; and a great part of these changes have, with much probability, been attributed to the strict orders given by Severus, and other emperors, to destroy all the wood in the conquered provinces. Several of the British forests, however, which are now mosses, were cut at different periods, by order of the English parliament, because they harbored wolves or outlaws. Thus the Welsh woods were cut and burned, in the reign of Edward...
Page 103 - ... affords immediately a mixture of permanent gases and vapors, which condense into an oleaginous liquid, which two products separate on cooling. The oil is collected in a special vessel, and the gas passes into a gasometer. This carburetted hydrogen is wholly unfit* for illumination; it giving a very small flame, nearly like that from brandy.
Page 36 - The foregoing analysis is founded upon a well known fact, that the quantity of heat, generated during the combustion of any fuel, is in exact relation to the quantity of oxygen consumed in the process. Hence, in order to ascertain the relative calorific power of different kinds of fuel, it is only necessary to ascertain the quantity of oxygen which each consumes in burning.
Page 61 - ... a more essential service to the public, more especially to farmers, than by enabling them to convert their unproductive and unsightly bogs and morasses into luxuriant fields and sources of wealth. I consider my peat grounds by far the most valuable part of my farm ; more valuable than my wood lots for fuel, and more than double the value of an equal number of acres of my uplands, for the purposes of cultivation. " In addition to these, they furnish an inexhaustible supply of the most essential...
Page 14 - From the researches of Dr. Macculloch, it appears that peat is intermediate between .simple vegetable matter and lignite, the conversion of peat to lignite being gradual, and being brought about in a great lapse of time by the prolonged action of water.
Page 35 - ... on the present surface. Not so however with oaks, as their stumps are commonly found resting on the gravel at the base, or on the sides of the small hillocks of gravel and sand which so often stud the surfaces of bogs, and have by Mr. Aher been aptly called islands.
Page 40 - At the bottom of peat mosses there is sometimes found a cake or " pan," as it is termed, of oxide of iron, and the frequency of bog iron-ore is familiar to the mineralogist. The oak which is so often found dyed black in peat, owes its colour to the same metal. From what source the iron is derived is by no means obvious, since we cannot in all cases suppose that it has been precipitated from the waters of mineral springs. According to Fourcroy there is iron in all compact wood, and it is the cause...
Page 40 - II., to prevent the natives from harbouring in them and harassing his troops. It is curious to reflect, that considerable tracts have by these accidents been permanently sterilized, and that during a period when civilization has been making great progress, large areas in Europe have, by human agency, been rendered less capable of administering to the wants of man.
Page 53 - On examination I found that it was formed from the bark of some tree allied to the American Fir, the structure of which may be readily discovered by polishing sections of the coal, so that they may be examined by the microscope.