AN ELECTRICAL FURNACE.
Some of the enormous power which runs waste at the Falls of Niagara is about to be utilised at last, and, strangely enough, the first work required of the water will be the smelting of refractory ores. This new undertaking is to be carried out by the Cowles Electrical Furnace Company, the inventors of the process being Messrs Eugene H. and Alfred H. Cowles. Their experimental works at Cleveland, Ohio, have been so successful, that they were awarded the John Scott premium and the Elliot Cresson medal of the Franklin Institute. While labouring under various disadvantages, the Company was yet able to produce metallic combinations that promise to be of great importance, such as aluminium bronze, aluminium silver, aluminium brass, and silicon bronze in ingots, castings, wire, and rolled metal. Some of these alloys were manufactured into different articles in every-day use. They exhibited screws of aluminium brass; knives with blades of aluminium silver, and handles of aluminium bronze; together with a number of other manufactured articles. Aluminium bronze is stronger than steel, is not so liable to rust, and, being elastic and ductile, if it can be produced at a cheap enough rate, it should have a great future before it. For instance, cycles made of it would be lighter, stronger, and more easily kept clean than those made of steel. This industry alone should create a large demand. Silicon bronze, also, from its electric conductivity, tensile strength, lightness, and non-corrosiveness, will be a desirable substitute for iron and copper in telegraphy; while aluminium silver—an alloy containing the special bronze with nickel—will be serviceable for cutlery and fancy articles. Pure aluminium, however, has this great disadvantage, that it tarnishes readily, and unless something can be done to remedy the defect, its usefulness will be considerably restricted. At the same time, these alloys bid fair to supplant steel and other metals in the manufacture of light articles where strength and appearance are desirable.
A dynamo larger than any yet constructed is at present being made for the Company at Lockport, New York. As already stated, it will be driven by water, acting on turbines. The contemplated works will, it is estimated, yield about three hundred thousand horse-power, and this only represents a fraction of the power that is running to waste at Niagara.