Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing the fusibility of minerals and in reduction.
The first successful idea of using electricity depended on the enormous heating powers of the arc. The infusibility of alumina was no longer prohibitive, for the molten oxide is easily reduced by carbon.
For high temperature work it is necessary to employ platinum, which would be an ideal standard for all purposes on account of its constancy and infusibility, did not the thermoelectric properties of different specimens differ considerably.
