Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1899 — GREATEST HEAT. [ARTICLE]

GREATEST HEAT.

Electrical Furnace Produce* a Tea' perature that Breaks the Record. |h The highest temperature yet produced by man has been reached by an especially constructed furnace at the Columbia University. Prof. Tuckerm, to whom belongs the honor of the e®»'pertinent, had been working for years on the idea so successfully carried out’ and has finally generated heat 20 degrees higher than the record made' some time ago by Prof. Moiselon of Parts. The heat of the sun is estimated at 10,000 degrees. The heat; generated at Columbia was 6,500. The effect was tremendous. The electrical furnace was charged with a current of unusual power, which was so high that* under It steel, hard quartz and even platinum were vaporized. As for or-, dlnary crucibles, they disappeared at once In a little puff of smoke. It la difficult to appreciate the degree of such beat without some comparisons. Scalding water means a temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit and red-hot' iron 800 degrees.* Steel melts at 3,000 degrees and bolls like water at 3,500 degrees. Commercially the experiment' Is very useful because it has shown that diamonds of marketable size and purity may be made artificially. Further, It has given to commerce two products of almost Incalculable value —calcium carbide and slllcium carbide.