182 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



iiig such steel as it can produce. However, even here the combina- 

 tion of Bessemer and electric furnace is possibly cheaper than the 

 all open-hearth process ; the combination of open-hearth and electric- 

 furnace processes is quite possible and practicable to produce crucible- 

 quality steel on a large (tonnage) scale, and the combination of the 

 open-hearth and electric furnace into one furnace is not only a 

 possible combination, but is actually being " tried out." The latter 

 idea is to take an open-hearth furnace and to place electrodes in the 

 roof. The furnace is run as an ordinary open-hearth furnace, with 

 the electrodes withdrawn, and at the close of the open-hearth heat 

 gas and air are shut off entirely, the electrodes lowered into proximit}?" 

 to the bath, and the heat finished as an electric-furnace heat. The 

 idea is sound and practicable and will result in the production of 

 better steel than can be obtained from any open-hearth furnace at 

 but a slight advance on the cost of the open-hearth steel, say $2 to 

 $3 per ton. 



As to the capacity for enlargement of electric steel furnaces, they 

 started out to duplicate the crucible-steel process, producing 100 

 pounds of melted steel at a heat, and in eight years have risen to 15 

 tons' capacity. In Europe an electric calcium-carbide furnace of 

 18,000 kilowatts, capable of producing 200 tons of carbide daily, is 

 in practical operation. A furnace of like power capacity could be 

 built to make steel, and would be a 200-ton steel furnace or larger. 

 We can therefore say with assurance that with a little more expe- 

 rience and experiment electrometallurgists will be able to furnish 

 the steel maker with electric steel furnaces as large as are wanted — 

 up to 200 tons' capacity, if desired. 



