Recent Advances in Electrochemistry

THE important developments within the past few years in electrochemistry, in particular in the electric furnace art, in electrometallurgy and in the methods of combatting corrosion are to be the subjects of my discussion. Fig.1 shows the rise of the electric steel furnace industry in this country and Canada. Many prophesied that the electric furnace was largely a war baby and that the sudden rise in the industry, due to the outbreak of the great war, would be fol-lowed by an equally sudden drop after the armistice. However, the curve shows that this, prophecy was not correct; the number of furnaces in operation in this country and Canada has continued to increase steadily, so that at the end of 1925 there were over 525 electric steel furnaces in successful operation. What does this mean? It has a big significance, namely that the en-tire steel industry has been revolutionized, to a certain extent, that we have been able to introduce certain alloys and steel products that we were unable to pro-duce before. On the table is. a sample of metallic chro-mium, analyzing more than 98 per cent chromium, made in the electric furnace. Before the war, the only commercial method of producing chromium was that by the Goldschmidt process. If chromium oxide is mixed with granulated aluminum, a violent reaction occurs, resulting in the production of metallic chro-mium. However, the price of chromium so made will always be above that of the raw material, which at the present time is about 27 cents a pound.. Furthermore, the chromium metal could only be turned out in small quantities, whereas in the electric furnace, large quan-tities, ton masses, can be produced today. The advent of chromium produced in the electric furnace has brought about an entire new phase in the alloy indus-try. The fuel-fired furnaces can turn out a low-carbon chromium steel that runs about 3 per cent chromium, whereas in the electric furnace, 60 per cent ferro-chromium is daily produced in large masses with almost entire elimination of carbon. It is difficult indeed to turn out ferrochrome very low in carbon. New steels are being produced today, for example the steel with which everyone has become familiar within the 'last few years, "stainless steel,". and which would have been impossible without the low-carbon ferrochrome. The elimination of most of the carbon made it possible to roll the chromium steels into thin sheets and manu-facture them into knife blades.