Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 55.djvu/354

338 Walther process, which does not use electricity but depends on the intense heat generated by burning acetylene under pressure. In electric furnaces the formation of carbide depends simply on the heat of the arc, which fuses the mixture of lime and coke. The latest improvements on the first very simple forms of furnace have secured continuity of work and economy of electric energy. In the United States carbide is made exclusively in the Horry furnace. This furnace consists of a huge short cylinder or hollow wheel, mounted to revolve slowly on a horizontal shaft. The periphery of the cylinder is closed by removable cast-iron slats. As the cylinder is partly revolved on its axis from time to time, the slats are taken off from one side and replaced on the other, thus leaving the top always open. The cylinder is filled on one side with the powdered mixture of coke and lime. Into the mixture two vertical carbon electrodes project downward through the open top of the cylinder. As the carbide is formed, the cylinder is revolved, lowering the mass from the electrodes. The fused carbide cools, hardens, and is broken off and removed as it rises on the other side of the slowly revolving cylinder; new material is constantly fed in to maintain the level around the electrodes. The process in the Horry furnace is continuous; the furnace can be run without arresting the current until repairs are necessary. It is said to combine the different theoretical improvements referred to, and to reduce the cost of production. The Horry furnace is in use at Niagara Falls and at Sault Ste. Marie. At St. Catherine's, Canada, Willson is using his own furnace. Abroad, the older types of furnace, the Willson, Bullier, and Héroult, are those chiefly in use.

The actual ingot of good commercial carbide is nearly pure—ninety-six to ninety-nine per cent—but the ingot is surrounded by a crust of carbide mixed with unchanged material, containing forty to