A somewhat impure silicon (containing 90-98% of the element) is made by the Carborundum Company of Niagara Falls (United States Patents 745 122 and 842273, 1908) by heating coke and sand in an electric furnace.
But in some cases in which the current is used for electrolysis and for the production of extremely high temperatures, for which the calorific intensity of ordinary fuel is insufficient, the electric furnace is employed with advantage.
The electric furnace has several advantages as compared with some of the ordinary types of furnace, arising from the fact that the heat is generated from within the mass of material operated upon, and (unlike the blastfurnace, which presents the same advantage) without a large volume of gaseous products of combustion and atmospheric nitrogen being passed through it.
This advantage is especially observed in some cases in which the charge of the furnace is liable to attack the containing vessel at high temperatures, as it is often possible to maintain the outer walls of the electric furnace relatively cool, and even to keep them lined with a protecting crust of unfused charge.
There is, however, one (not insuperable) drawback in the use of the electric furnace for the smelting of pure metals.
