PROGRESS IN ELECTRO-METALLURGY.* 
By JoHN B. C. KERSHAW. 
The eiectro-metallurgical industries are the growth of the last 
twenty years, but in that period very remarkable progress has been 
made. Only one industry existed prior to 1886, namely, that of 
copper refining. This was carried on in a few works upon an 
extremely limited scale of operations. To-day the electrolytic cop- 
per-refining industry is second in importance only to that of copper 
smelting, and over one-half of the world’s production of copper 
is submitted to the former process. The manufacture of alu- 
minium, calcium, carbide, carborundum. ferroalloys, and sodium are 
other important and expanding electro-metallurgical industries, 
while the application of the electric furnace to steel refining is a new 
development which may lead to very important changes in the 
iron and steel industries, for, in conjunction with gas engines and 
dynamos, it may serve as a means of utilizing the enormous power 
now lost in the waste gases from our blast furnaces. 
The following pages deal with the various electro-metallurgical in- 
dustries in alphabetical order, describing briefly the processes or 
methods in use and the extent to which these methods have been 
applied upon an industrial scale. 
Aluminium.—The manufacture of aluminium by the electrolytic 
method was commenced at New Kensington in America in the year 
1888, and at Neuhausen in Switzerland in the year 1889. The pro- 
cesses were worked out independently by Hall in America and by 
Heroult in France, but as now operated they are practically identi- 
cal, and consist in the electrolysis, with carbon electrodes, of alumin- 
ium oxide held in solution in a fused bath of cryolite and fluorspar. 
‘Since the introduction of the electrolytic method of manufacture in 
1889 the production of aluminium has increased from 85 tons to 12,000 
tons in 1906. The following tabular statement shows the gradual 
“Reprinted, by permission, from the Engineering Magazine, New York, Octo- 
ber and November, 1907, 
41780—08——18 ° 215 
