Electric Arc Furnace

An electric arc furnace is a furnace that heats material by passing an electric arc directly through it, used industrially to melt scrap and produce steel and to melt other metals in foundries, with industrial units ranging from about one tonne to roughly 400 tonnes in capacity and reaching temperatures of about 1,800 degrees Celsius. Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov demonstrated the possibility of arc melting in 1803 and Humphry Davy conducted further experimental demonstrations in 1810, but James Burgess Readman built the first successful operating electric arc furnace in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1888 and 1889, patented for phosphorus production; Paul Heroult established a commercial steelmaking plant using the technology in the United States in 1907. The electric arc furnace became a major method of steel production because it can run on scrap metal and be sited without reliance on coke or a blast furnace.