CLAY BRIQUETTES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Clay as a soil being widely distributed, some interest may attach to some experiments I made during the coal strike in this remotely rural spot in burning our local soil as fuel. Devoting some days to the purpose, and fitting up a harness room as a miniature factory, we brought the clay freshly dug from the field, and with the addition of water and coal dust, brought it to a workable condition. Cutting out from the mass a spadeful at a time, it was placed on a table and quickly shaped with trowels and mallets into bars or briquettes two and a-half inches wide and eight inches long, perforated at regular intervals with six or seven holes. These latter helped to force a draught; moreover, when the briquettes were placed side by side—three or four at a time—upon a coal fire the spaces between them formed a continuous air shaft ; and they burnt readily, threw out intense heat, and were most durable. A near neighbour, a gamekeeper's wife, who took up the matter very keenly, became exceedingly expert in her management of the fires, and with the addition of some wood faggots, effected bread-baking operations with raw untreated samples of the clay which she obtained from a field around the cottage. Wood, when burnt alone, is like a runaway horse. It goes too fast, and the same in a less degree may be said of coal ; but the third substance, added as at first described, checks, consolidates, conserves, and is of value. We have made these briquettes again this year for use through the winter, and continue to find them a success.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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