The Hottest Heat 



The highest temperature ever reached by man is 9400° Fahrenheit 

 By Raymond Francis Yates 



UNTIL late years the greatest heat man 

 possessed as an industrial agency was 

 that of the ordinary fuel furnace in 

 which temperatures approaching thirty-two 

 hundred degrees Fahrenheit were possible. 

 While these temper- 



Oxygen 



atures were indis- 

 pensable and im- 

 portant utilities of 

 industry at the time, 

 they are insignifi- 

 cant today in com- 

 parison with the 

 heat employed in 

 the commercial pro- 

 duction of rubies, 

 calcium carbide, car- 

 borundum, graphite, 

 and steel. 



The two great 

 allies of man today 

 in the production of 

 heat are, in order of 

 their importance, 

 chemistry and elec- 

 tricity. 



A gas composed of 

 mixed hydrogen and oxy- 

 gen when ignited burns 

 so furiously that it pro- 

 duces a temperature of 

 thirty-six hundred de- 

 grees Fahrenheit. Util- 

 izing the combustion of 

 these two gases as a 

 source of heat, a French- 

 man, M. Verneuil, has commercially pro- 

 duced rubies, by fusing alumina with a 

 trace of chromium oxide as the coloring 

 medium. So perfect is this imitation gem 

 that it is chemically impossible to dis- 

 tinguish it from the natural article. 



The oxy-hydrogen blow- 

 pipe is abo used for welding. 

 The temperature of the 

 flame is just beyond the 

 melting point of quartz, and 

 by its use, tubes, flasks and 

 many different pieces of 

 quartz chemical apparatus 

 are constructed. Quartz 

 vessels are invaluable in 



chemistry. They resist most acids and 

 rapid changes in temperature. 



The Wonderful Thermit Process 



The next step in realizing high tempera- 

 tures by means of 



Workman welding a broken steel frame 

 with heat from an oxy-acetylene blowpipe 



Hydrogen- 



F 



Granulated Carbon% 



Iron Cylinder 



Professor Moissan made 

 wonderful imitation dia- 

 monds with this apparatus 



rapid chemical ac- 

 tion was discovered 

 by Professor H. 

 Goldschmidt, of Es- 

 sen, Germany. This 

 is called the "ther- 

 mit" process, and it 

 produces a tempera- 

 ture as high as thirty- 

 four hundred degrees 

 Fahrenheit. A furi- 

 ous heat is produced 

 by thermit because 

 of the great chemical 

 affinity existing be- 

 tween oxygen and 

 aluminum. If gran- 

 ulated iron oxide and 

 aluminum are mixed 

 together and prop- 

 erly ignited, the iron 

 rapidly loses its oxygen 

 to the aluminum accord- 

 ing to the following 

 simple equation: 



Aluminum-firon oxic!c = 

 Aluminum oxide+iron 



After the reaction has 

 been completed, the iron 

 will be found in a molten state just beyond 

 its boiling point. The oxides of many other 

 elements act in the same manner. This 

 makes the thermit process a* very valuable 

 asset to the metallurgist and chemist. 

 Not only has thermit proved itself an 

 ally of the metallurgist, but 

 of the engineer and mechanic 

 as well. It has been found 

 that if a small amount of 

 titanium is placed in thermit, 

 it forms an alloy with the 

 molten iron which makes it 

 invaluable for welding pur- 

 poses. A few years ago, a 

 fractured casting, no matter 



An oxy-hydro- 

 gen blowpipe 

 used for weld- 

 ing purposes 



414 



