Production of Pig Iron in the Electric Furnace

THE art of electric smelting came with the turn of the present century and owes its existence to the introduction of alter-nating current, which found its first wide use in the establishment of the great power plants at Niagara Falls, N, Y. Prior to that time current was largely direct. The fur-naces were electrolytic in nature and found their first metallurgical use in the produc-tion of aluminum, and this process still prevails. The normal production of pig iron up to that time was carried on in blast furnaces in which charcoal, coke and anthracite were used as the fuel. This new electric process called for sufficient carbonaceous material to reduce the oxides and impregnate the pig iron with sufficient carbon, but the remainder of the energy was to be supplied by electric power. The chemical reactions are essentially the same in electric smelting as obtains in the older blast furnace. All of these data are so well known in both methods as to need no discussion at this time, for they can be found in scientific publications and books written during the first two decades of this century.