The record-union., 1897-07-17


and electrically prepared bleaching So
lutions are on the market.
Commercial ozone cannot only be
used as a bleach, but for many other
purposes as well. It's electrical produc-
ton has been accomplished by the
French scientist, AudrioIi, at the rate
of forty grains per electric horsepower
hour. At 2 cents per horsepower
hour eight grams of active oxygen may
be produced at the rate of fifty grams
per horse-p power hour, and it is hoped
that 800 grams may yet be reached,
although 1000 is the theoretical limit.
By a special electrical treatment of
nitric acid, ammonia of good quality is
produced in Germany The quantity is
| sufficiently great to cause it to become
commercial product and the cost of
production cheap enough to enable it to
successfully compete with the old fash
ioned article. Alkaline phosphate and
caustic alkal are being electrically
manufactured in Belbrick. on the
Rhine, from concentrated solutions of
phosphoric acid and soluble alkali
salts. Cadmium can be purified to
within One-tenth of L per cent by
treating it electrically and by the same
agent chromium can be covered with
coating of the metal with which it is
| to be employed and oxidation COM
pletely prevented. In short, the chem
ical application of electricity is being
| extended every day
| one hundred thousands tons of cop
per are now being produced annually
| by electric reduction processes. This
| IS one-quarter of the output of the
world. The Elmore process alone, used
! in this country, insures a production
from one plant of $50 tons a week.
Another plant located not far from
New York City produces electrically
200 tons week. The industry is ex-
| tending and there are at present
twenty copper refining plants using
| electrolytic processes.
| Electrically produced aluminium
makes almost as great a. showing. The
metal is produced in England, France.
Switzerland and the United States.
England and France are making very
| little of it at the present time. The
| Heroult process is used in Switzerland.
! and the Hall process is in use in this
! country. The Swiss factories are To-
Gated at Neuhausen, LIE Praz and Foy-
ers. The American factories are To-
! Gated al New Kensington. Penn. Nj
agara and ST. Michael. 1t costs under
| electrical methods 26 cents a pound 10
make the metal abroad In the United
States it costs 80 cents The differ
ence in the cost is occasioned by the
difference in wages paid to the work.
men, but this is balanced by a tariff
| duty of 10 cents a pound If the price
| can be reduced to about half of what
| 1t is now, aluminium will become a most
formidable rival of copper. Another
| electrical triumph is the plating of
aluminium. The reason aluminium can
not be plated under the old system is
| because the metal is ordinarily covered
by thin coating of alumina. which
must be removed. This can be removed
! by electric treatment, and the desired
/ plating put on
| BY means of an electric current it is
new possible to make steel directly
from iron ore. The Lavel process of
| electric iron smelling, used in Sweden.
renders this possible. The process is
very simple. The pulverized ore is
mixed with carbon and subjected TO
heat in rotating cylinder. 1t is then
| brought into contact with an electric
arc of great power. The ore is rapidly
| reduced to metallic iron, which is al
| lowed to flow into a furnace, where it
| is converted into steel, or, if this is not
| desired, it is allowed to run into molds
! to await further treatment This pro-
cess is most economical, reducing the
cost much below that of the old
method Edison's method of extracting
! iron from the New Jersey hills is cleo
trio in all its features. There is a great
| quantity of finely divided iron scat
| tered through the rocks of the Orange
| Mountains, and if this inventor sue
ceeds in working his magnetic separa-
| tor on a commercial basis he will pre-
vent the bulk of the iron trade going
! to the West, as it now threatens to do.
| Electric coal mining has received so
much exploitation that it needs little
more comment than a mere directing of
attention to the fact that the past year
has witnessed a great advance in eIec-
trio methods. Even tin is now reduced
electrolytically, and one genius has hit
upon a method for utilizing tin scrap
by decomposing it electrically and re-
forming it through the same agency
into ingots.
In New Jersey silver refining works
may be seen a silver belt thirty-one feet
long, fifteen inches wide, and weighing
forty pounds. 1t is part of a great
electric deposition system, and is, in
fact, the negative pole of the deposition
battery. The reduction capacity of
this factory is 10000 ounces of silver
annually. 1t is one of the many in this
country, for the electric processes are
| rapidly taking the place of the old
methods. Turning naturally from silver
to gold, electrolysis viii be found a
leading industry among the miners.
The Siemens & Halske cyanide process
is in active operation in South Africa,
and eight companies, in business to
treat tailings alone, take care of co.,
600 tons monthly. In fact, the old zinc
precipitation process seems to have CIV
| en- place to electrOlytic methods all
over the Rand. One central station op-
crates four three-phase dynamos, with
a combined capacity of 700 volts This
is stepped up by means of transform
ers to 10.000 volts, after which it is
| transmitted to the mines, twenty
| miles in several directions, from the
station. At the mines it is stepped
down again to the usable pressure of
go to 800 volts. Electrolysis is used
in the Broken Hill mine in Australia
and in some of the mines of our own
| Western country.
Continuing among the metals we find
that the desilveration of lead is be-
ing practiced by electrical means in
Germany. Antimony is being separ-
ated from gold ore by the same means
and in the same country. Litharge or
sulphate of lead obtained from the