In 1885 the brothers Cowles patented a process for the electrothermal reduction of oxidized ores by exposure to an intense current of electricity when admixed with carbon in a retort.
Nevertheless, it was found impracticable to smelt alumina electrically except in presence of copper, so that the Cowles furnace yielded, not the pure metal, but an alloy.
So long as the metal was principally regarded as a necessary ingredient of aluminium-bronze, the Cowles process was popular, but when the advantages of aluminium itself became more apparent, there arose a fresh demand for some chief method of obtaining it unalloyed.
Cowles in 1885, which was worked both at Lockport, New York, U.S.A., and at Milton, Staffordshire.
That this process did not depend upon electrolysis, but was simply an instance of electrical smelting or the decomposition of an oxide by means of carbon at the temperature of the electric arc, is shown by the fact that the Cowles furnace would work with an alternating current.