[TheForge] microwave heavy metal session

[Bill & Kirsten]

This is from New Scientist, www.newscientist.com, issue 7 February 2004, p.
24.
It's fairly short, so I'm typing it in as I see it on the page.

"Giant microwave ovens could one day replace the blast furnaces currently
used to make steel.  Jim Hwang from Michigan Technological University,
situated not far from the largest iron ore mine in the world, produced a
pound of steel in his lab using a super-strength oven he made by combining
the magnetrons of six household microwaves into a single unit.
  He showed that making steel in a microwave oven wastes less energy than a
traditional furnace, because microwaves only heat up molecules that are
polarised- meaning they have an unevenly distributed charge- while a furnace
heats everything in it.
   Steel is a blend of iron and carbon made by heating iron oxide to over
1000�C in the presence of coke and reducing agents.  Blast furnaces waste
vast amounts of energy heating up the surrounding air.  Microwaves however,
heat up polarised iron oxide, but not neutral molecules such as nitrogen,
which make up almost 80 per cent of air."

I think some Michigan blacksmiths should visit that scientist.
-Kirsten
oakriver@centurytel.net
 http://home.centurytel.net/Fiorini_and_Skiles