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Science 3 May 1968:
Vol. 160. no. 3827, pp. 528 - 530
DOI: 10.1126/science.160.3827.528
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Articles

Direct High-Temperature Ohmic Heating of Metals as Liquid Pipes

A. V. Grosse 1, J. A. Cahill 1, W. L. Liddell 1, W. J. Murphy 1, and C. S. Stokes 2

1 Research Institute of Temple University, 4150 Henry Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144
2 Research Institute of Temple University, 4150 Henry Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19144

When a sufficiently high electric current is passed through a liquid metal, the electromagnetic pressure pinches off the liquid metal and interrupts the flow of current. For the first time the pinch effect has been overcome by use of centrifugal acceleration. By rotation of a pipe of liquid metal, tin or bismuth or their alloys, at sufficiently high speed, it can be heated electrically without intermission of the electric current. One may now heat liquid metallic substances, by resistive (ohmic) heating, to 5000°K and perhaps higher temperatures.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)