Induction Furnaces
An American manufacturer of induction furnaces studying the history of that type of furnace in 1961 found to his considerable surprise that the first disclosure of such a furnace was made by Ferranti in British Patent 700 of 1887. He discovered also that Ferranti had outlined the principle of the submerged resistor furnace which has been accepted as the most effective type. Something of this little-known work was told by Ferranti in a letter dated 31 January 1914: '1 beg to advise you that in 1887 I invented the electric induction furnace as now known. I constructed a furnace on these lines and melted metal in it in the station of the electric supply company in London, the engineering work of which I then carried out. The furnace was perfectly successful but I then saw that electricity was at far too high a price to be at all possible for furnace purposes and that it would be many years before it could be commercially applied. I therefore did no further work in the matter and the idea, as you know, has therefore been carried into commercial application by other engineers.' Although he said he did no further work in the matter he did in fact take out further patents, 13949 and 13949A of 1906 for Improvements Relating to Electric Furnaces of the General Type Described in Patent 700, and 13965 of 1906 for Improved Methods and Means for the Conducting of Gaseous Endothermic Reactions . . . more particularly to the Fixation of Free Nitrogen ... in Waste Furnace Gases or the Like.
An American manufacturer of induction furnaces studying the history of that type of furnace in 1961 found to his considerable surprise that the first disclosure of such a furnace was made by Ferranti in British Patent 700 of 1887. He discovered also that Ferranti had outlined the principle of the submerged resistor furnace which has been accepted as the most effective type. Something of this little-known work was told by Ferranti in a letter dated 31 January 1914: '1 beg to advise you that in 1887 I invented the electric induction furnace as now known. I constructed a furnace on these lines and melted metal in it in the station of the electric supply company in London, the engineering work of which I then carried out. The furnace was perfectly successful but I then saw that electricity was at far too high a price to be at all possible for furnace purposes and that it would be many years before it could be commercially applied. I therefore did no further work in the matter and the idea, as you know, has therefore been carried into commercial application by other engineers.' Although he said he did no further work in the matter he did in fact take out further patents, 13949 and 13949A of 1906 for Improvements Relating to Electric Furnaces of the General Type Described in Patent 700, and 13965 of 1906 for Improved Methods and Means for the Conducting of Gaseous Endothermic Reactions . . . more particularly to the Fixation of Free Nitrogen ... in Waste Furnace Gases or the Like.