2-889-631 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Cutting Turf, and Preparing it for the Rick, 1850. Making peat charcoal at Derrymullen, Kildare, Ireland: '... two skenes are used to chop or make a long incision in the bank or bench from which the turf is taken with one forward thrust or cut; and the other having the side of it so turned up as to enable the man cutting with it to take out a perfectly square turf, measuring six by four inches: he then throws it to another man, who stands on a platform raised over the bank; and he flings it to a third, who...passes it to women and girls, who pile the pieces up, and place them on what are technically called "short clamps"...These "clamps" consist of hurdles at equal distances from each other, so as to admit of the air passing through them, and thus causing the turf to dry in a much less time than if placed, as heretofore, on the ground'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.