Electric Steel from Electric Furnaces 



We were forced by the exigencies of war to develop our 

 own crucible-steel industry. Now we lead the world 



ELECTRIC steel is now a commercial 

 success, and the United States leads 

 the world in its production. Until 

 it became possible to melt and refine steel 

 by the use of electricity as a source of heat, 

 instead of gas or oil, nearly all steel was 

 made either in crucibles or 

 small pots, or in large coal 

 or oil furnaces. Large 

 furnaces, known as open- 

 hearth, today still make 

 the majority of the steel 

 produced in the world, 

 but it is the electric steel 

 furnace which now makes 

 the best and purest steel, 

 rapidly displacing that 

 made. in small crucibles, 

 hitherto the best for 

 tools, razors, etc. 



The unusual qualities 

 possessed by electric steel 

 are not bestowed on it by 

 the electricity itself. This 

 should be clearly under- 

 stood. The conditions are 

 responsible rather than 

 the agent itself. In other 

 furnaces where oil or gas 

 and air are the heat- 

 producing mediums, there 

 is more or less contamina- 

 tion from impurities, such as sulphur, 

 as well as from the oxygen of the air 

 itself, too much of which is often harmful to 

 steel. But in the furnace, electricity is an 

 even and very intense source of heat; the 

 conditions can be so regulated that the air 

 or oxygen has but little effect on the steel. 

 Practically no contamination is possible. 

 Also the temperature is so high that more 

 refining is attainable than in any other 

 furnace. In other words, certain chemical 

 reactions can take place so as to remove 

 objectionable elements — an impossibility in 

 other steel-making furnaces. 



One of the qualities that distinguishes 

 electric steel is its greater purity. Hence 

 it is stronger than other steels. Compare 

 it with any steel made by any other proc- 

 ess and of the same composition, and the 

 electric steel will show greater strength. 

 Many steels are susceptible to change from 



Tapping molten metal from an 

 electric furnace. Steel flows 

 from it like water from a tub 



frequent shocks. Some give out and break 

 down before others under such conditions. 

 Again, electric steel is superior to others in 

 this respect and is now used in many places 

 where shocks must be withstood, as for 

 automobile axles, springs, etc. Electric 

 steel is also very uniform in 

 composition and is denser 

 than other steel — both im- 

 portant qualities. Steel 

 made by the usual and 

 older processes also con- 

 tains varying amounts of 

 certain gases included in 

 them, strange as this 

 may seem. Electric 

 steel, however, is very 

 free from these objec- 

 tionable constituents. 



Europe and particu- 

 larly Germany had al- 

 ways led in the use of 

 electric furnaces for mak- 

 ing steel until the war 

 started. Development in 

 this country had been 

 very slow partly because 

 electricity was high and 

 partly because there was 

 not a large demand for 

 such a high grade steel. 

 The actual need was sup- 

 plied by importations from Europe. As 

 the war progressed and electric steel could 

 not be imported when needed we were 

 forced to develop our own electric steel 

 industry. In addition plumbago crucibles, 

 with which crucible steels, then the high 

 grade steel, were made, advanced so in 

 price and became so expensive and hard to 

 get that crucible steel makers were driven 

 to the electric furnace. Today in this 

 country all but two or three crucible steel 

 castings makers are now using electric fur- 

 naces instead of crucibles and would not 

 change back to the old process if they could. 

 Their product is better and more easily 

 made. Tons are made at a time where 

 formerly it took over twenty crucibles to 

 make one ton. 



The expansion in this branch of the steel 

 industry in the last six years in the world 

 and in this country is astonishing. 



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