180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



gentleman managing one of the large American steel companies, who 

 has just returned from an inspection of the different electric steel 

 furnaces operating in Europe, tells me that he considered the Stassano 

 furnace as doing the best work, all around, of all the furnaces he saw 

 in operation. I have seen this furnace operating smoothly and regu- 

 larly in Turin, producing steel for castings which were being sold in 

 competition with open-hearth and Bessemer steel castings in the open 

 market. The single arc furnace is best illustrated by the Girod 

 furnace, which is built like the body of an open-hearth furnace with 

 the electric current entering the bath by carbon electrodes suspended 

 above it, and springing arcs to it, while the current leaves the bath 

 through metallic conductors passing through the saucer-shaped 

 hearth below the level of the metallic surface. These furnaces work 

 with great regularity, and a large number are operating in Europe, in 

 capacities up to 12 tons each. I am informed that the Krupp Works 

 at Essen has just contracted to put in five of these of the 12-ton size, 

 winch would confirm statements made to me by my European friends 

 that this furnace is working the best of all the electric steel furnaces now 

 operating in Europe. The double-arc furnace, of which the Heroult 

 furnace is the most familiar type, works with two arcs in series, the 

 current entering the bath and leaving it also through electrodes 

 suspended above it. The general style is that of an open-hearth 

 furnace with electrodes passing through the roof. The current used 

 is roughly 100 kilowatts per ton of steel capacity, and the largest so 

 far operated is 1 5 tons. A 3-ton furnace of this type was seen by you 

 at the Firth-Stirling Steel Works at Demmler, yesterday, producing 

 crucible-quality steel. The United States Steel Corporation has 

 acquired licenses to operate the Heroult furnace, and has already 

 two 15-ton furnaces in operation. Without doubt, the Heroult fur- 

 nace is at the present time the most popular and successful electric 

 steel furnace in the United States. I have not time to more than 

 name the Keller, the Hiorth, the Harmet, the Frick — all of which are 

 operating at this present moment in Europe. 



There are other ways of making steel than the crucible method. 

 Bessemer steel is the cheapest, and open-hearth steel is next best. 

 These two varieties gra'de into each other in quality, but between 

 open-hearth and crucible steel there is an enormous gap in price and 

 in quality which is destined to be bridged over by intermediate qual- 

 ities of electric steel as it becomes cheaper and is manufactured on a 

 larger scale. This will soon become one of the large uses of the electric 

 method, occupying a field peculiarly its own. It will enable steel 

 manufacturers to supply steel better than the best open-hearth prod- 

 uct at less than the price of crucible steel. I need not enlarge upon 

 the advantages of this to a Pittsburgh audience. 



