The machine being readily set up where the peat is excavated, the labor of transporting the fresh and water-soaked material is greatly reduced. The drying-frames are built up into houses as fast as they are filled from the machine. They can be set up anywhere without difficulty, require no leveling of the ground, and, once filled, no labor in turning or stacking the peats is necessary; while the latter are insured against damage from rain. These advantages, Gysser claims, more than cover their cost.
The daily production of a machine operated by two men with the assistance of one or two boys, is 2500 to 3000 peats, which, on drying, have 9-1/2 to 10 inches of length, and 2-1/2 in diameter, and weigh, on the average, one pound each.
c.--_Condensation of peat of all kinds._--_Weber's method with modified machinery._
[Illustration: Fig. 18.--SCHLICKEYSEN'S PEAT MILL.]
_Schlickeysen's Machine._[26]--This machine has been in use in Germany since 1860, in the preparation of peat. It appears to have been originally constructed for the working and moulding of clay for making bricks. The principle of its operation is identical with that of Weber's process. The peat is finely pulverized, worked into a homogenous mass, and moulded into suitable forms. Like Gysser's machine, it forces the peat under some pressure through a nozzle, or, in the larger kinds through several nozzles, whence it issues in a continuous block or pipe that is cut off in proper lengths, either by hand or by mechanism It consists of a vertical cylinder, through the axis of which revolves a shaft, whereon are fastened the blades, whose edges cut and whose winding figure forces down the peat. The blades are arranged nearly, but not exactly, in a true spiral; the effect is therefore that they act unequally upon the mass, and thus mix and divide it more perfectly. No blades or projections are affixed to the interior of the cylinder. Above, where the peat enters into a flaring hopper, is a scraper, that prevents adhesion to the sides and gives downward propulsion to the peat. The blades are, by this construction, very strong, and not liable to injury from small stones or roots, and effectually reduce the toughest and most compact peat.