176 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



ficiaries of this invention, using artificial graphite anodes in electro- 

 lytic operations or as electrodes in electric furnaces. The electro- 

 chemical industry in general has been most wonderfully helped by 

 this one electrochemical process. 



Carborundum stands for a large industry, centered at Niagara 

 Falls, and founded also by Mr. Acheson. Twenty years ago the name 

 was not in the dictionary; now it is known all over the world as the 

 most efficient abrasive material in use. First produced just across 

 the Monongahela, in a little furnace as large as a cigar box, and sold 

 for polishing diamonds at many dollars per ounce, it is now made by 

 tons in electric furnaces of 2,000 horsepower capacity, and competes 

 successfully with such common natural abrasives as emery and com- 

 mon sand. And in fact, common silica sand, the most abundant 

 material on earth, with common carbon, like coke, furnish all the 

 ingredients necessary for the furnace to work upon to produce SiC 

 (silicon carbide). Mr. Acheson not merely founded another new 

 industry, but he discovered a new chemical compound; he has 

 enriched science, promoted industry, and created new instruments of 

 service; no wonder that his scientific friends have showered on him 

 honors — the Kumford Medal, the Perkin Medal, and two years ago 

 the presidency of this Electrochemical Society. 



Silicon is the metal whose oxide is silica sand, and is by far the 

 most abundant metallic element on earth. Up until very recently it 

 was to be seen only in chemical museums, costly and useless — a 

 chemical curiosity. Now Mr. F. J. Tone, one of Mr. Acheson's former 

 lieutenants, is producing it by the ton and selling it by the carload at 

 a few cents per pound. The chemical world has found uses for it, 

 large uses, such as in solidifying steel, making good copper castings, 

 reducing other metals from their oxides, chemical "pots and pans," 

 etc. This illustrates again the variet}^ of the achievements of electro- 

 chemistry. Here is a new material furnished the world at a low price 

 and all sorts of workers are finding all sorts of advantageous uses for 

 it. The electric furnace makes it from simply sand and carbon, with 

 electric energy plus considerable "brains." 



Calcium carbide is the product of another American invention. 

 The name was scarcely in the chemical books, and the purveyors 

 of the rarest chemicals did not have it on their lists, when Mr. Thomas 

 Willson, trying to make something else in the electric furnace, made 

 this compound from ordinary lime and carbon, and started an elec- 

 trochemical industry which has spread all over the civilized world. 

 I am almost tempted to say that there is a calcium carbide works 

 everywhere but in Pittsburgh, but that would really be an exaggera- 

 tion, and I will not say it. The best thing about calcium carbide is 

 that it is easy to make; the raw materials may be found almost 



