One of the earliest notable uses of the electric furnace in a large electro-chemical industry was for the production of carborundum, a carbide of silicon, which is remarkably useful as an abrasive, being available in the manufacture of grinding stones and other like purposes to replace emery and corundum.  It is produced by the use of a simple electric furnace of the resistance type, where coke, sand, and sawdust are heated to a temperature of between 2000 degrees and 3000 degrees C. The chemical reaction involves the production of carbon monoxide, and gives a carbide of silicon, a crystalline solid which has the excellent abrasive properties mentioned.  The manufacture was first started by its inventor, E. G. Acheson, about 1891 on a small scale, and in the following year 1,000 pounds of the material were produced at the Niagara Falls works.  Within fifteen years its output had increased to well over six million pounds.

The electric furnaces at Niagara Falls have supplied many interesting electro-chemical processes.  After making a carbide in the electric furnace it was found possible to decompose it by further increasing the heat to a point where the second element is volatilized and the pure carbon in the form of artificial graphite remains.  In more recent work the carbide containing the silicon has been done away with and ordinary anthracite coal used as a charge from which the pure graphite is obtained.  This graphite has been found especially useful in electrical work as for electrodes, while a more recent process enables a soft variety of graphite to be obtained which becomes a competitor of the natural material.

One of the most interesting of the many electro-chemical processes is the heating of lime and coke in the electric furnace so as to obtain a product in the form of calcium carbide, which, on solution in water, forms acetylene gas, a useful and valuable illuminant.  This process dates from 1893 when T. L. Willson in the United States first started its manufacture on a large scale, and the great electrochemist, Henri Moissin, about the same time independently invented a similar process as a result of his notable work with the electric furnace.  The process involves merely a transformation at a high temperature, a portion of the carbon in the form of coke, uniting with pulverized lime to give the calcium carbide or CaC2.  Now this material, when water is added to it, decomposes, and acetylene or C2H2 is formed, which is a gas of high illuminating value as the carbon separates and glows brightly after being heated to incandescence in the flame.

The electric furnace at Niagara Falls has been able to produce still another combination in the form of siloxicon by heating carbon and silicon to a temperature slightly below that required to produce carborundum.  This product is a highly refractory material and is valuable for the manufacture of crucibles, muffles, bricks, etc., for work where extreme temperatures are employed.  The electric furnace enables various elements to be isolated, such. as silicon, sodium, and phosphorus, and when obtained in their pure state they find wide application.