dynamo machines are considered in the article Dynamo, and there
is, therefore, no necessity to refer particularly to the numerous
different shapes and types employed in electrotechnics.
Bibliography.—For additional information on the above subject the reader may be referred to the following works and original papers:—
H. du Bois, The Magnetic Circuit in Theory and Practice; S. P. Thompson, The Electromagnet; J. A. Fleming, Magnets and Electric Currents; J. A. Ewing, Magnetic Induction in Iron and other Metals; J. A. Fleming, “The Ferromagnetic Properties of Iron and Steel,” Proceedings of Sheffield Society of Engineers and Metallurgists (Oct. 1897); J. A. Ewing, “The Magnetic Testing of Iron and Steel,” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., 1896, 126, p. 185; H. F. Parshall, “The Magnetic Data of Iron and Steel,” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., 1896, 126, p. 220; J. A. Ewing, “The Molecular Theory of Induced Magnetism,” Phil. Mag., Sept. 1890; W. M. Mordey, “Slow Changes in the Permeability of Iron,” Proc. Roy. Soc. 57, p. 224; J. A. Ewing, “Magnetism,” James Forrest Lecture, Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. 138; S. P. Thompson, “Electromagnetic Mechanism,” Electrician, 26, pp. 238, 269, 293; J. A. Ewing, “Experimental Researches in Magnetism,” Phil. Trans., 1885, part ii.; Ewing and Klassen, “Magnetic Qualities of Iron,” Proc. Roy. Soc., 1893. (J. A. F.)
ELECTROMETALLURGY. The present article, as explained under Electrochemistry, treats only of those processes in which electricity is applied to the production of chemical reactions
or molecular changes at furnace temperatures. In
many of these the application of heat is necessary to bring
the substances used into the liquid state for the purpose of
electrolysis, aqueous solutions being unsuitable. Among the
earliest experiments in this branch of the subject were
those of Sir H. Davy, who in 1807 (Phil. Trans., 1808,
p. 1), produced the alkali metals by passing an intense current
of electricity from a platinum wire to a platinum dish,
through a mass of fused caustic alkali. The action was started
in the cold, the alkali being slightly moistened to render it a
conductor; then, as the current passed, heat was produced
and the alkali fused, the metal being deposited in the liquid
condition. Later, A. Matthiessen (Quarterly Journ. Chem. Soc.
viii. 30) obtained potassium by the electrolysis of a mixture
of potassium and calcium chlorides fused over a lamp. There
are here foreshadowed two types of electrolytic furnace-operations:
(a) those in which external heating maintains the
electrolyte in the fused condition, and (b) those in which a current-density
is applied sufficiently high to develop the heat necessary
to effect this object unaided. Much of the earlier electro-metallurgical
work was done with furnaces of the (a) type, while
nearly all the later developments have been with those of class
(b). There is a third class of operations, exemplified by the
manufacture of calcium carbide, in which electricity is employed
solely as a heating agent; these are termed electrothermal, as
distinguished from electrolytic. In certain electrothermal
processes (e.g. calcium carbide production) the heat from the
current is employed in raising mixtures of substances to the
temperature at which a desired chemical reaction will take
place between them, while in others (e.g. the production of
graphite from coke or gas-carbon) the heat is applied solely to
the production of molecular or physical changes. In ordinary
electrolytic work only the continuous current may of course
be used, but in electrothermal work an alternating current is
equally available.
Electric Furnaces.—Independently of the question of the application of external heating, the furnaces used in electrometallurgy may be broadly classified into (i.) arc furnaces, in which the intense heat of the electric arc is utilized, and (ii.) resistance and incandescence furnaces, in which the heat is generated by an electric current overcoming the resistance of an inferior conductor.
Excepting such experimental arrangements as that of C. M. Despretz (C.R., 1849, 29) for use on a small scale in the laboratory, Pichou in France and J. H. Johnson in England appear, in 1853, to have introduced the earliest practical form of furnace. In these arrangements, Arc furnaces. which were similar if not identical, the furnace charge was crushed to a fine powder and passed through two or more electric arcs in succession. When used for ore smelting, the reduced metal and the accompanying slag were to be caught, after leaving the arc and while still liquid, in a hearth fired with ordinary fuel. Although this primitive furnace could be made to act, its efficiency was low, and the use of a separate fire was disadvantageous. In 1878 Sir William Siemens patented a form of furnace[1] which is the type of a very large number of those designed by later inventors.
In the best-known form a plumbago crucible was used with a hole cut in the bottom to receive a carbon rod, which was ground in so as to make a tight joint. This rod was connected with the positive pole of the dynamo or electric generator. The crucible was fitted with a cover in which were two holes; one at the side to serve at once as sight-hole and charging door, the other in the centre to allow a second carbon rod to pass freely (without touching) into the interior. This rod was connected with the negative pole of the generator, and was suspended from one arm of a balance-beam, while from the other end of the beam was suspended a vertical hollow iron cylinder, which could be moved into or out of a wire coil or solenoid joined as a shunt across the two carbon rods of the furnace. The solenoid was above the iron cylinder, the supporting rod of which passed through it as a core. When the furnace with this well-known regulating device was to be used, say, for the melting of metals or other conductors of electricity, the fragments of metal were placed in the crucible and the positive electrode was brought near them. Immediately the current passed through the solenoid it caused the iron cylinder to rise, and, by means of its supporting rod, forced the end of the balance beam upwards, so depressing the other end that the negative carbon rod was forced downwards into contact with the metal in the crucible. This action completed the furnace-circuit, and current passed freely from the positive carbon through the fragments of metal to the negative carbon, thereby reducing the current through the shunt. At once the attractive force of the solenoid on the iron cylinder was automatically reduced, and the falling of the latter caused the negative carbon to rise, starting an arc between it and the metal in the crucible. A counterpoise was placed on the solenoid end of the balance beam to act against the attraction of the solenoid, the position of the counterpoise determining the length of the arc in the crucible. Any change in the resistance of the arc, either by lengthening, due to the sinking of the charge in the crucible, or by the burning of the carbon, affected the proportion of current flowing in the two shunt circuits, and so altered the position of the iron cylinder in the solenoid that the length of arc was, within limits, automatically regulated. Were it not for the use of some such device the arc would be liable to constant fluctuation and to frequent extinction. The crucible was surrounded with a bad conductor of heat to minimize loss by radiation. The positive carbon was in some cases replaced by a water-cooled metal tube, or ferrule, closed, of course, at the end inserted in the crucible. Several modifications were proposed, in one of which, intended for the heating of non-conducting substances, the electrodes were passed horizontally through perforations in the upper part of the crucible walls, and the charge in the lower part of the crucible was heated by radiation.
The furnace used by Henri Moissan in his experiments on reactions at high temperatures, on the fusion and volatilization of refractory materials, and on the formation of carbides, silicides and borides of various metals, consisted, in its simplest form, of two superposed blocks of lime or of limestone with a central cavity cut in the lower block, and with a corresponding but much shallower inverted cavity in the upper block, which thus formed the lid of the furnace. Horizontal channels were cut on opposite walls, through which the carbon poles or electrodes were passed into the upper part of the cavity. Such a furnace, to take a current of 4 H.P. (say, of 60 amperes and 50 volts), measured externally about 6 by 6 by 7 in., and the electrodes were about 0.4 in. in diameter, while for a current of 100 H.P. (say, of 746 amperes and 100 volts) it measured about 14 by 12 by 14 in., and the electrodes were about 1.5 in. in diameter. In the latter case the crucible, which was placed in the cavity immediately beneath the arc, was about 3 in. in diameter (internally), and about 312 in. in height. The fact that energy is being used at so high a rate as 100 H.P. on so small a charge of material sufficiently indicates that the furnace is only used for experimental work, or for the fusion of metals which, like tungsten or chromium, can only be melted at temperatures attainable by electrical means. Moissan succeeded in fusing about 34 ℔ of either of these metals in 5 or 6 minutes in a furnace similar to that last described. He also arranged an experimental tube-furnace by passing a carbon tube horizontally beneath the arc
- ↑ Cf. Siemens’s account of the use of this furnace for experimental purposes in British Association Report for 1882.
