Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-06-21
coWLEs PATENT DECISION.

Gray and Bradford of this city and |
Dallas of Philadelphia, have handed
down decision in favor of the Electric
Smelling and Aluminium Go. of Cleve-
land, in its suit against the Carbornn-
dunn Co. of Niagara Falls for infringe
mento of patent rights The patent in
volved is one issued to E. ii. and
Alfred IA. Cowles ON June 9th, 1885, for
an improvement in processes for smet-
ing ores by the electric current. Another
patent for an improvement in electric
smelling furnaces was issued on the
same day TO the same applicants, but
| the contention that it has also been in
fringed is not allowed in the decision.
The suit was begun six years ago
before Circuit Judge Burlington In the
| Western district of Pennsylvania and
| after long trial in which l, 400 pages
| Of evidence, much OF il expert, were
submitted, it was decided adversely to
the complainant. The case was APP
pealed and reargued before Judges
Gray, Dallas and Bradley. Before
decision was handed down Judge Brad
ley retired from the bench, and at the
request of the court, the case was
again reargued. Judge Bradford, who
succeeded Judge Bradley IN the hear
ing, wrote the decision.
III the present decision is sustained it
will affect many other concerns besides
the defendant. Some of the more i'm
portant of the industries OF Niagara
Falls and the adjacent electrical fun
mace centres will be seriously threat
ened, among them the Oldbury Chemi-
cal Co. and the Electric Lead Reduction
companies, and it is believed that sew
eral factories now operating in Niagara
INuI he oil Inv iY,it Iprtinn
Twenty years ago. the possibilities OF
the electric furnace were but dinlly
foreseen, even by the most advanced
laboratory workers. Sir Humphrey
1 Davy was one OF the first men to ex-
. pertinent with electricity for producing
I: great heat, and several other physicists
!: made similar experiments. All, how
!. ever, were handicapped by the low
power of the electric currents they
n were able to obtain. When, after the
q giant strides made by Edison and
r Others in the knowledge of the genera
n ton of electricity, electric currents OF
y more power became available, the only
q known methods of using them for gen
n Grating heat were arc furnaces, in which
q the substance to be heated was placed
! between disoharging terminals, as o.
v an arc street lamp, and incandescen
/ IuTDhCHS. In WDlCu III WAS ubhtbd iToh
penetrating tilament of carbon Of
other substance of high resistance.
n Both these forms of furnace were
of necessity, very small, and the Cowle!
4 brothers, who undertook to experiment
on a large scale with smelling opera
!, lions by electrically generated heat
found that they we're not capable 0
being enlarged to advantage. AT length
they broke carbon rod, which hat
"A been used in an inoandescent furnace
n into small pieces and mixed the piece
y, with the ore upon which they wer
q working. The broken car bon offered
/ greater resistance to the passage of al
;s electric current through it and a create
"a degree of heat was obtained in conse
III quence, and at the same time the cur
,e rent was diffused throughout the entir
of mass of mixed ore and carbon, instea
I of being confined to the immediat
Nh locality of the solid carbon rod. Further
X, more the carbon acted as a reducei
ar being consumed in the presence of tn
liz percentage of refined metal obtained b
at the process.
al These experiments were widely note
nv by scientific men, and at the sus
a gestion of one of them who BEGAN
NO interested, AN attepmt was made to fut
al common sand Into rock crystals. A col
he @ "arhon fragments was imbeddad
al AID, and the current turned OF
ite interval tho furnace W;
eli iau, and considerable quantity
If d sand was removed. In the cent?
ity the mass, next to what had bee
/ ,ne core of carbon, was found sma
rer quantity of clear crystals nearly
of hard as diamonds. These Alfred Cow |
ty considered to be crystals of the eleme
o.. silicon, of which common sand is {
es. oxide. Silicon had never been separat,
me- from its compounds before; but it W
ne. known TO be essentially similar to Il
irs metals in its chemical affinities, al
in as the crystals did not yield to attemr
fed at further analysis, he seemed iustifi
md in his conclusion. At several lectur
,e,s which Mr.. Oowles gave subsequent
his he exhibited the crystals as bits
4 a pure silicon made in his furnace, a
,ps. afterward presented them to the Mass
ere chusetts Institute of Technology, whe
of they were preserved in the metallurRit
fee. museum. In the meantime the Cow
ed. brothers turned their attention
Iy a aluminium more or less exclusive
i of paying little attention to the oil
the products of the electric furnace.
on L. G. Acheson, who perfected
and process by which chTborundum
was manufactured, was a student in Ediso
Id / laboratory at the time that the Cow
ting brothers made their experiments.
erye afterward represented Mr.. Edison
,tby Europe, and installed the first elect
ting light plants in Milan, Genoa, Ven
to a aud Amsterdam. AS early as 1880
eat; experimental to SOME extent on
ton artificial production of diamonds, .
ex- took up the work again some ii
ause later, with the added idea of at lie
ask producing some hard substance to
nong used like emery, &C., for abras
and purposes. His previous experiments
been shown him that this might be do
va. and his final problem was to prod
you such q material oheaply and in la
,ne,s quantities. He had no ones previ
fire. work to suggest that the heat of
-ious electric furnace might be used to &c
tc- chemicals into combination for
furnace had only been used up to t
or timo for destroying compounds;
hich with the idea that IL might be so us
iazza and conceiving that carbon in un
and with clay ought to be very b
little substance. and that, pei haps, it mi
For separate out as diamond in cooli
any he set to work.
each He fused mixture of coke and
nored between carbon terminals in crucil
suc- and obtained small purplish crys
nmsr which would scratch glass. Repeat
make the experiment on larger scale
nner- obtained crystals harder than the