ABSTRACT
In 1892 Henri Moissan of the Sorbonne, in Paris, commenced a series of investigations on the electric furnace, and thereby sowed the seed of industries which now utilise a million horse-power. The passage of a current through a conductor is invariably attended by the production of heat, and a corresponding amount of electricity disappears. The total electrical energy which passes through a wire in a given time is equal to the strength multiplied by the pressure. According to the Scientific American the quantity of steel produced in electric furnaces rose from 48,000 tons in 1909 to 129,000 tons in 1911. The first commercial electric furnace was established by Cowles in America in 1885. In addition to the application of the electric furnace to the production of alloys of chromium, tungsten, molybdenum, and other metals with iron has seen a more ambitious development in connection with the manufacture and refining of steel.
