Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1904-04-01
MAY CHANGE PROCESS
Commercial Test Which May Revo-
lutionize SIN citing Industry.
New Plan Is to Treat All Kinds of Ore
by Electricity Instead of by Heat
Generated by Ordinary
Fuel.


tific men and high Importance to vari-
GUS lines of the metal industry is soon
20 be conducted at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
1t will be the first test in practicable
way of what is known as the Hatch cleo
trio smelter, designed to smelt all kinds
Of ore by electricity instead of by heat
generated by the ordinary fuel.
Many laboratory tests have been made
by the inventor, but the experiment soon
to be made at the 500 will be the first
upon a scale that will deterine the prac
ticability of the smelter when put to
commercial use. Prominent iron and
copper mining men as well as electrical
experts will witness the test, at which
pre- from several sections of the Lake
Superior region will be treated.
If successful, as is believed will be the
case, the new process will revolutionize
the smelling industry, being, it is esti-
mated, from 25 to 50'per cent. cheaper
than the present methods 1t would en-
able the mining companies, those pro-
ducing iron ore, for instance, to con-
vert their product into pigs at SO per
cent. fine have been turned out, COM
pairing with pigs 9S per cent. pure pro-
duced in Wales.
Iron ore, on the other hand, is among
the most difficult ores to treat, requir-
ing from 5000 to $500 degrees of heat
to separate the iron. In laboratory tests
a heat of $500 degrees have been at
tanned by the Hatch smelter, and the
inventor asserts that the degrees to
which heat may be produced is only lin
tied by the fact that no material can be
found which would not undergo dis
solution under the fierce heat generated.
The principle involved in smelling by
electricity is very similar to that fol-
lowed in the construction of the cleo
trio furnaces used in fusing limestone
and coke in the manufacture of calcium
carbide.
The Hatch smelter is tubular in shape
and is kept revolving when in use. The
interior of the furnace is lined with fire.
clay and other noncombustible ma
terial. Through this inner lining long
fat pieces of carbide protrude, to either
end of which are attached copper bolts
! IdSteneu on Ine OulSlut W ldl &c SOppci
conductors, which are fiat, about eight
inches in width and an inch in thick
ness
When the furnace revolves the copper
conductors make contact with set o.
brushes which extend about one-thirt
around the body of the furnace. During
the period of a revolution of the furnace
by contact with the brushes, which arr
charged with the electric current, thu
carbons are heated to white heat, th'
electricity continuing to flow through
them until the carbons are about to en-
ter the ore. which half fills the fur
mace.
At this point the current is automat
ically cut off from those carbons enter
ing the ore and begins to flow into th
carbons which are emerging on thu
other side of the furnace, Thus. Will
the carbons enter the ore at whit
heat, so long as they remain buried II
the ore they are not charged This |
made imperative, as the ore woul
serve as a conductor and the curren
would be short-circuited, thus defeat
ing the purpose of the smelter, 1t is thi
feature of the problem of smelling b.
electricity which always frustrated tn
previous efforts along this line.