Page images
PDF
EPUB

men's stories; but investigations made later proved beyond all doubt that a new island had suddenly arisen above the ocean. That it was a volcanic islandthe outlet to subterranean fires-was equally true.

Several vessels early visited the newly created island, but none of them ventured very near, nor did any of the crews dare place a foot on the still very hot rocks and earth. More recently, the United States Revenue-Cutter Perry visited the island-in fact has made several visits and made some casual investigations.

Captain Donaldson, of the steamer Homer, not long ago arrived at San Francisco. The Homer came directly from the Pribilof Islands, and Captain Donaldson brought from the north the first photographs of the new island. The photographs were taken by an officer of the Perry when the island was still very hot, as is shown in the accompanying picture. By virtue of being the first living creature to set foot on this newborn island, the officers gave this, the latest of the Aleutian islands, the name of "Perry Island”—an appropriate christening.

Captain Donaldson, who brought down the photographs, has not yet seen Perry Island, and could not therefore give any personal description of the new land.

Perry Island is now one of the Bogoslof group of the Aleutian Islands. It is situated between Fire Island and Castle Rock Island-both comparatively recent

arrivals as geologists reckon time. Castle Rock poked its rugged nose above the sea in 1779. Fire Island's birthday was in 1883. Perry Island is located about 60 miles west of the town of Unalaska, and though gradually cooling, is probably one of the hottest places on earth today. However, in spite of the heat and the fact that the surface of the island was still soft, the officers of the Perry ventured ashore; and with great difficulty and no little peril, one of them succeeded in climbing almost to the summit, nearly 700 feet above sea-level.

The new island, in shape, closely resembles a stupendous bee-hive, with a base about 900 feet in diameter. From numerous fissures, steam, smoke, and sulphurous fumes constantly rise in columns, which continue to form a cloud that is visible for more than thirty miles. The great cloud is shown in the photograph, which was taken from Fire Island, near by, five of the six officers of the Perry being shown standing in the foreground.

The officers of the Perry have made a preliminary survey of the new island and taken extensive soundings in the vicinity of the shores, of which they will send an account to Washington in amplification of the very brief official report recently made to the Treasury Department. The Government will no doubt later cause a more thorough investigation-surveys, soundings, etc., to be made, in the interest of geology, geography, and marine science.

Hurrying Up the Coal-Mines

By Aubrey Fullerton

HOULD another coal strike be ordered, or should the mines be crippled by some possible disaster and the market supply of coal cut down even temporarily, the hand-to-mouth public of the United States and Canada would ask, as it has asked before: Is there no fuel but coal? A whole continent chiefly dependent upon a single section, is not only a tremendous risk but an economic anomaly. Have we nowhere in all this region an alternative fuel with which we can warm our houses, cook our meals, and drive our engines? Nature is usually liberal, even prodigal; has she stinted us in one of the chiefest necessities?

The unique thing about our fuel supply is that it all comes, at some stage, from the plant world. Coal was once wood; and action similar to that by which prehistoric forests were converted into mineral fuel is still in progress. Something of the kind is going on in every swamp and bog where vegetable matter is decaying and being deposited from year to year in layers of varying thickness. If the process were continued long enough, the result would be immense areas of new coal.

Peat, then, is incipient coal; and while Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia practically monopolize the finished. anthracite, there are vast tracts of bog-land throughout almost all of the

[graphic][merged small]

In the method of using peat here illustrated, much of the moisture is first extracted by pressure; the remainder by

evaporation under action of the sun's rays.

[graphic][merged small]

Northern States and the Canadian provinces which have very considerable possibilities as fuel-producers. Wherever there has been a dense wood or plant growth, under conditions such that it has become wholly or partially submerged, there is likely to be a peat deposit more or less advanced in the fuel stage. It is now a matter only of artificially completing the process and hurrying up the coalmine.

Nature's success in making coal has consisted, first, in a good quality of plant growth as the raw material; and, second, in a heavy and long-continued pressure. If, therefore, the turf deposit of a suitable bog be removed and subjected to sufficient pressure, would the product be an approximation to coal? Or is some other agency besides pressure necessary? In such answer as has been given to these two questions, lies the measure of success that has been reached thus far in the production of peat fuel.

In Europe, peat has for centuries been used as a domestic fuel, and in some places it still competes with locally-mined. coal. Ireland has 3,000,000 acres of peat-bog, from which she harvests almost her entire fuel supply; Russia has 6,700 square miles of bog-land; Sweden burns two million tons of prepared peat every

[merged small][graphic][merged small]
[graphic]

STRETCH OF PEAT-BOG BROKEN UP FOR MACHINE PEAT.

In the manufacture of the best briquette fuel, the surface of a bog is not now broken up in this way, but is cut in thin layers of loose soil and spread out to dry.

HURRYING UP THE COAL-MINES

PEAT EXCAVATOR AT WORK. Electrically operated.

attempts have been made in New York, Michigan, Indiana, and others of the Northern States. Some measure of success has marked them all as experiments; but while it has been clearly proved that an excellent fuel can be made from bog peat, no means of profitably producing a commercial fuel has yet been discovered. The total peat-fuel production of the United States is not more than 1,500 tons a year, while in the same length of time the output of coal amounts to 350,000,000 tons. The difficulty in every case has been to rid the peat of its water-content, and this admittedly remains the problem to-day. The solution of the problem will very possibly come from Canada, where experimentation has been carried on for years. with considerable success, though not until a number of the initial enterprises had been financially wrecked. Canada is particularly concerned in the matter, because for want of native coal, except in the far east and the far west, she is largely dependent upon the United States for fuel supply. The latter, having a sufficient store of the finest coal, can perhaps afford for a time to neglect the peat deposits; but Canada is in more urgent need,

271

and is therefore studying the problem more diligently. A variety of working methods have been tested.

Ordinarily a peat-bog has first to be drained. In some cases, however, the bog is permanently wet, the peat lying below the surface of a vast muskeg which cannot be drained. A dredge, floating on the bog, may be used in such cases to excavate the peat, which may then be loaded on scows and towed to a suitable location for spreading and drying. ing. A new process has been proposed in Manitoba, by which the fuel is to be manufactured on the spot, the peat being raised from the bog by a chain of buckets, passed to a breaking-up machine, and then, in a paste form, put through steamheated pipes, from which it emerges in about forty minutes sufficiently dried to be pressed into briquettes. The entire machinery for these operations is carried on the scow, which thus receives the raw material at one end and delivers the finished fuel at the other. The process is, however, as yet experimental and at least questionable.

It is nearly always necessary to drain the bog by main ditches some 500 or 600

[graphic]
[graphic]

PEAT-GATHERING MACHINE.

Electrically operated. Corresponds to the modern hay-rake that gathers the surface material in convenient manner for loading on cars

« PreviousContinue »