LEAVITT'S PEAT JOURNAL, Boston, February, 1867  

* Very rare publication
* Volume 1 Number 1 

Printed in the masthead is this newspaper's purpose: "Devoted Especially to the Dissemination of Information Relating to the Production of Fuel from Peat, and Generally to all that Pertains to the Economical Production snd use of Fuel of all Kinds".
This is the volume 1, number 1 issue. Only five issues are known to have been printed, and this is the only issue we have located in our 50+years.
Four pages, nice condition.

Background: The publication of the debut issue of Leavitt's Peat Journal in Boston in February 1867 signifies a pivotal yet short-lived chapter in American industrial history, capturing a moment when the United States aggressively sought alternative energy solutions during the post-Civil War era. Spearheaded by Thomas H. Leavitt—a prominent advocate who engineered peat-compressing machinery and authored influential texts on the subject—this rare trade journal emerged to fuel a speculative "peat rush" triggered by severe wartime coal shortages and skyrocketing fuel prices. By declaring its mission to disseminate technological and economic information regarding peat production alongside alternative fuels, the four-page periodical served as an ambitious entrepreneurial platform designed to attract investors, back municipal energy independent infrastructure, and transition locomotives and factories from scarce coal to abundant, locally harvested bog turf. Ultimately, the paper's collapse after just five issues mirrors the broader, rapid deflation of the American peat market as coal networks stabilized, transforming this sole-surviving premier issue into a monumental artifact of 19th-century resource anxiety and industrial experimentation.