Evening star., 1917-10-21

turning coke and sand into the millions
of CRYSTALS or artificial diamonds. to be
used as grindstones and grinding pow
ders.
The furnaces are enormous They are
cylinders or boxes made of fire brlck.
SO high that the talles1 man could walk
through them without bending his mead
They are about twenty feet long, seven
feet wide, and large enough TO nora
20. GEO pounds of material This mater
ial consists of crushed coke and SAND.
mixed with a little sawdust and SAT-
to aid in the reduction 1t is put into
the furnace in such way that coro
or rope of graphite runs ieng,hwlse
through the center of the mass from
one end to the other. This cord. which
is merely Jumps of graphite lald To-
gether in a little trench. Is connected
with two big carbon rods. one at each
end of the furnace. and the carbon rods
are Joined to thick cables that bring
in the electricity.
The graphite cord carries the cur
rent much like the filament in an IN
candescent lamp. AS it comes in, the
black cord turns white-hot and the
electric heat increases until II reaches
the enormous temperature which l
have mentioned. The heat is so great
that il would turn steel. iron. granite
or marble to Vapor ana make the
most refractory materials burn iike so
much tallow. The fire is so glar1ns
that If a person should look directly
into a furnace he would be blinded, and
the power consumed would be sum
cient to operate a sixteen ndle power
carbon incandescent lamp for more
than two hundred years
It is this terrible heat that turns the
coke and sand into crystals. 1t does
that within thirty-stx hours. at which
time the steel framework outside the
furnace is raised by machinery and the
bricks are taken away. showing chunks
and masses of jewels in the shape OF
crystals of all the colors of the rain
bow. These masses are then taken
from the furnace. and crushed by Dig
iron wheels into the millions of tiny
individual crystals used for grinding
and the making of abrasives of various
kinds.
But I cannot describe the many won
ders Of these Niagara industries. 1t
would take more than the space OF this
letter to tell you the story of carborun- :
DUN alone The most interesting thing
concerning it is how electricity is used
to produce it. for 1t is somewhat after
the same methods that the enormous
current furnished here changes other
common things into materials of the
greatest value.
This is the case with ferro- silicon.
which is used to absorb the oxygen from
molten steel, thus making possible
sound castings and ingots by eliminat-
ing blow holes. We are now making
something like twenty eight million
tons of steel year and 10 per cent OF
this is treated with ferro-silicon- An
enormous amount of II is now used IN
all the steel plants that are working
for the war.
Silicon is also employed for general
ing gas for our military balloons. All
of the armies in Europe are equipped
with the apparatus to generate 1t, ana
that In connection with their observa-
tion balloons.
Speaking of high speed steel. this Is
a product that depends almost entirely
upon Niagara power. 1t is owing to this
steel, made with alloys produced here,
that we have the perfection of the mod
ern cutting tool. In the old days OF car
bon steel it was necessary to have a
cool cutting edge. and the best Il man
could get was cut of ffteen rect 10
the minute With the hlgh-speed tools
we can now take off chips OF steel an
inch and IA half wide and hal1 an lhch
thick at the rate of forty or hrty rect
minute, and that notwithstanding the
tool is red hot. without hisn-speeo
steel and artificial abrasives our ma
chine shops would be cut TO three-
fourths or four-fifths of their present
product. An automobile plant which
now produces 500 cars per day coula
not turn out more than lou cars wien
the same plant and the same force.
Among the alloys made here are
ferro-chromium, ferro-vanadium and
ferro-tungsten Ferro- o-chromium is the
hardening agent used in making armor
plate. Without it there would be no
tough skin to protect our battieshlps,
and no armor- piercing projectiles to
serve our coast defenses. The battle
ship Pennsylvania has 10000 tons OF
armor, and to make this was required
same material enters into the manu-
facture of automobile steel and dies.
More than half of all the ferro-chro-
MUM that is used in the United States
Niagara Falls. -