contained no proof that he had reached the Pole. By that time most other people had come to an adverse conclusion and the sensation was over.
PEASANT (O. Fr. paysant, Mod. paysan; Lat. pagensis, belonging to the pagus or country, cf. “pagan”), a countryman or rustic, either working for others, or, more specifically, owning or renting and working by his own labour a small plot of ground. Though a word of not very strict application, it is now frequently used of the rural population of such countries as France, where the land is chiefly held by small holders, “peasant proprietors.” (See Allotments and Metayage).
PEASE, EDWARD (1767–1858), the founder of a famous
industrial Quaker family in the north of England, was born at Darlington on the 31st of May 1767, his father, Joseph Pease (1737–1808), being a woollen manufacturer in that town. Having retired from this business Edward Pease made the acquaintance of George Stephenson, and with him took a prominent part in constructing the railway between Stockton and Darlington.
He died at Darlington on the 31st of July 1858. His second son, Joseph Pease (1799–1872), who assisted his father in his
railway enterprises, was M P. for South Durham from 1832 to
1841, being the first Quaker to sit in parliament. He was
interested in collieries, quarries and ironstone mines in Durham
and North Yorkshire, as well as in cotton and woollen manufactures,
and he was active in educational and philanthropic
work. Another son, Henry Pease (1807–1881). was M.P. for
South Durham from 1857 to 1865. Like all the members of
his family he was a supporter of the Peace Society, and in its
interests he visited the emperor Nicholas of Russia just before
the outbreak of the Crimean War, and later the emperor of the
French, Napoleon III.
Joseph Pease’s eldest son, Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease (1828–1903), was made a baronet in 1882. He was M.P. for South Durham from 1865 to 1885 and for the Barnard Castle division of Durham from 1885 to 1903. His elder son, Sir Alfred Edward Pease (b. 1857), who succeeded to the baronetcy, became famous as a hunter of big game, and was M.P. for York from 1885 to 1892 and for the Cleveland division of Yorkshire from 1897 to 1902. A younger son, Joseph Albert Pease (b. 1860), entered parliament in 1892, and in 1908 became chief Liberal whip, being advanced to the cabinet as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster in 1910.
Another son of Joseph Pease was Arthur Pease (1837–1898), member of parliament from 1880 to 1885 and again from 1895 to 1898. His son, Herbert Pike Pease (b. 1867), M.P. for Darlington 1898–1910, was one of the Unionist Whips.
The Diaries of Edward Pease were edited by Sir Allred Pease in 1907.
PEAT (possibly connected with Med. Lat. petia, pecia, piece, ultimately of Celtic origin; cf. O. Celt. pet, O. Ir. pit, Welsh peth,
portion), a product of decayed vegetation found in the form of
bogs in many parts of the world. The continent of Europe is
estimated to contain 212,700 sq. m. of bog; Ireland has 2,858,150
acres, Canada 30,000,000 acres, and the United States 20,000,000
acres. The plants which give origin to these deposits are mainly
aquatic, including reeds, rushes, sedges and mosses. Sphagnum
is present in most peats, but in Irish peat Thacomitrum lanuginosum
predominates. It seems that the disintegration of the
vegetable tissues is effected partly by moist atmospheric oxidation
and partly by anaerobic bacteria, yeasts, moulds and fungi,
in depressions containing fairly still but not stagnant water,
which is retained by an impervious bed or underlying strata.
As decomposition proceeds the products become waterlogged
and sink to the bottom of the pool; in the course of time the
deposits attain a considerable thickness, and the lower layers,
under the superincumbent pressure of the water and later
deposits, are gradually compressed and carbonized. The most
favourable conditions appear to be a moist atmosphere, and a
mean annual temperature of about 45° F.; no bogs are found
between latitudes 45° N. and 45° S.
Peat varies from a pale yellow or brown fibrous substance, resembling turf or compressed hay, containing conspicuous plant remains, to a compact dark brown material, resembling black clay when wet, and some varieties of lignite when dry. Two typical forms may be noticed: “Hill peat” (the mountain or brown bogs of Ireland), found in mountainous districts, and consisting mainly of Sphagnum and Andromeda; and “Bottom peat” (the lowland or red bogs of Ireland), found in lakes, rivers, and brooks, and containing Hypnum. It always contains much water, up to 90%, which it is necessary to remove before the product can be efficiently employed as a fuel, and for most other purposes. A specimen dried at 100° C. had the composition: carbon=60.48%, hydrogen=6.10%, oxygen=32.55%, nitrogen=0.88%, ash=3.30%; the ash is very variable—from 1 to 65%—and consists principally of clay and sand, with lesser amounts of ferric oxide, lime, magnesia, &c. The specific gravity has been variously given, owing to the variable water content and air spaces; when dried and compressed, however, it is denser than water.
Peat-winning presents certain special features. The general practice is to cut a trench about a foot deep with a peculiarly shaped spade, termed in Ireland a “slane,” and remove sods from 3 to 4 ft. long. When one layer has been removed, the next is attacked, and so on. If the deposit be more solid step working may be adopted, and should water be reached recourse may be had to long-handled slanes. The sods are allowed to drain, and then stacked for drying in the air, being occasionally turned so as to dry equally; this process may require about six weeks. The dried sods are known as “dug peat.” Excavators and dredges are now extensively used, and the drying is effected in heated chambers, both fixed and revolving.
The low value of ordinary dug peat as a fuel has led to processes for obtaining a more useful product. In M. Ekenberg’s process the wet peat is pulped and milled so as to make it of uniform composition, and the pulp passed into an oven maintained at 180°–200° F., where it is carbonized by superheated water. The pressed product, which resembles lignite, still contains 8 to 14% of water; it is is driven off by heat, and the residue briquettes. The final product is nearly equal to coal in calorific value and has the additional advantage of a lower sulphur content—0.2 to 0.4% against about 2% in ordinary coal. M. Zeigler’s method leads to the production of a useful coke. Both these processes permit the recovery of valuable by-products, especially ammonium sulphate. Experiments for obtaining a gas suitable for consumption in gas-engines have been followed by commercial processes devised by the Mond Gas Corporation, London, and Crossley Bros. of Manchester, and by Caro and Frank in Germany. The processes essentially consist in destructively distilling peat in special retorts and under specified conditions, and, in addition to the gas, there is recovered a useful coke and also the nitrogen as ammonium sulphate.
The conversion of the nitrogen into ammonia has been the subject of much work, and is commercially pursued at a works at Carnlough, Co. Antrim, under patents held by H. C. Woltereck. The peat is treated with a mixture of air and water vapour in special furnaces, and the gaseous products, including paraffin tar, acetic acid and ammonia, are led through a special scrubber to remove the tar, then through a tower containing milk of lime to absorb the acid (the calcium acetate formed being employed for the manufacture of acetone, &c.), and finally through a sulphuric acid tower, where the ammonia is converted into ammonium sulphate which is recovered by crystallization.
Peat has also been exploited as a source of commercial alcohol, to be employed in motors. In the process founded on the experiments of R. W. Wallace and Sir W. Ramsay, which gives 25 to 26 gallons of spirit from a ton of peat, the peat is boiled with water containing a little sulphuric acid, the product neutralized with lime and then distilled, the ammonia is a so recovered. In another process a yield of 40 gallons of spirit and 66 ℔ of ammonium sulphate per ton of peat is claimed.
Of other applications we may notice C. E. Nelson’s process for making a paper, said to be better than ordinary wrapping; the first factory to exploit this idea was opened at Capac, Michigan, in 1906. Peat has been employed as a manure for many years, and recently attempts have been made to convert artificially its nitrogen into assimilable nitrates; such a process was patented by A. Muntz and A. G. Girard of Paris, in 1907.
See P. R. Björling and F. T. Gissing, Peat and its Manufacture (1907); F. T. Gissing, Commercial Peat (1909); E. Nystrom, Peat and Lignite (1908), published by Department of Mines of Canada.
PÉCAUT, FELIX (1828–1898), French educationalist, a member of an old Huguenot family, was born at Salies de Béarn, in 1828. He was for some months evangelical pastor at Salies, but he had no pretence of sympathy with ecclesiastical authority
