The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-04-02
YHE electric furnace for COM
mercial uses has brought into
existence electro. chemical and
electro.metallurgical ind,


existence electro chemical ant
electro.metallurgical indus
tries that We're previously confined en-
tirely to the laboratory of the expert
menter. New companies are being
formed continually to manufacture the
| products of the electric furnace. or tC
convert metals into new commercial
forms and TO refine others. The ex
treme possibilities of discovery in this
direction are still beyond prediction
and chemists and inventors are con.
stantly experimenting to find cheaper
and more effective ways of manufac.
turing metal products.
High temperature electro-c chemistry
has consequently an important bearing
on the mining outlook and the metal
trades in general. The consumption of
many of the minor metals by the new
group of industries has become sud-
denly so great that, the demand exceeds
the supply. In the use Of copper, in
particular, the consumption has tended
toward a rapid increase. while the
price Of metal has steadily advanced.
for the past ten years has averaged
about nine per cent. increase. while the
consumptlve demand has advanced in
recent years until the total stocks of
copper in the country have several
times been at an extremely low ebb.
Speculation in copper. and attempts
TO corner the market have several
ttn,oe ,inlyr ,pip hnn
nal conditions, but the trade demands
have been steady and healthy, and
many dealers had no fear of the ulti-
mate value OF the metal and carried
their stock easily through the short pc
riods of depression. Mills and brass
foundries have been running steadily,
and the supply for the current year
will no more than equal the demand
In the high temperature electro -chemi-
cal factories copper will be more of a
factor than ever before, and the con-
sumption of the metal for electrical
purposes must TO large extent deter
mine the actual value of the product.
The manufacture of carborundum
and calcium carbide in the electro
rapidly that immense investments have
been made in the furnaces and plants,
while the output of the factories Is
steadily broadening. In the steel in
dustry alone the consumption of car
borundum amounts to seventy-five
tons per month. and in nearly all lines
it is largely taking the place Of emery
ell 1,n ,fp
ture of this product requires only coke,
sand, sawdust and salt as raw mate
rials. 1t nevertheless makes a big de-
mand upon the copper market and also
upon lime and other materials en-
ployed rs flakes. The manufacture of
calcium carbide is even a larger indus
try than that of carbOrundum, and its
effect upon the mining of metals is
more important. This industry prom
lscs to extend for the current year so
t.Iat the output will be nearly doubled.
ARTIFICIAL GRAPHITE.
The manufacture of artificial graph
ite in the electric furnace is another ac-
complshment that has resulted in the
establishment on 4 large scale of an
entirely new industry. BY passing
amOrphous carbon through the electric
are artificial graphite has been made
FOR many years past. but its CONNER
,lal manufacture in the electric furnace
is scarcely year old. Almost pure
graphite. containing only one-tenth OF
one per cent. ash, is made in large bulk
in the factories. A granular graphite
suitable for many lubricating purposes
is produced in the electric furnace By
capitalization of anthracite coal. This
process has enabled the manufacturers
to make a common form of cheap gra-
phitc, which enables many uses for it
heretofore denied by virtue of its cost.
There is to-day manufactured by the
new processes some 3,00O000 or 4,0O0,-
900 pounds of graphite year, and the
material has been employed more eX-
tenslvely than ever before in the differ
ent trades and industries.
The artificial graphite lends itself
readily to various forms of manipula-
ton. which opens up for it new fields
for usefulness. Thus ii can be planed
and cut by machinery and used for
screwing up against beams and girders
where needed without splitting or
breaking. The ease with which II can
be machlned by ordinary wood tools
has made 1t one of the most popular
materials yet manufactured by the
new electric furnaces. The elimination
Of impurities from the graphite by the
electric process also recommends the
product for the more difficult and OK
acting trade demands where very fine |
material is demanded.
IMITATION ALUMINIUM.
The manufacture of artificial Alumni |
ium has attained considerable impor- |
tance through the same process as that |
which has revolutlonized the graphite !
industry. Both the chemical and elec-
trical processes OF making aluminium
are in vogue. and the output is so con-
siderable to-day that aluminium is
more generally used in over two-score
different industries. New smclters for
making the metal are In course of con-
struction at Niagara Falls and at Mas
sena. n. Y. while smaller ones have
been projected In other parts of the |
country. The electric furnace used for |
this purpose Is n carbon-lined crucible. |
which forms one electrode. and separ- |
ate carbon rods make the other.
The most expensive part of the pro- |
cess Is the cost OF Dupifyinp fine hnuy-