History of Electric Induction Heating

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Induction Heating
  1. Early work to Salesman
  2. Salesman to entrepreneur
  3. Vacuum furnaces
  4. Henry Rowan, Mars Rocket
  5. Cheston, Cragmet, IRS
  6. Visit Russia, Meet Vera
  7. Around the world, Meet the president
  8. Kramatorsk
  9. Consarc
  10. Consarc UK
  11. Carbon contract
  12. Russians in Scotland
  13. The Embargo is Coming
  14. Embargo and Aftermath
  15. BEPA
  16. After BEPA
  17. Fiber Materials Appeal
  18. Consarc Officials Deny Wrongdoing in Sales to Soviets
  19. Memos from Henry Rowan to Metcalf
  20. Rowland motor patent 1868
  21. Rowland reviews the bids for Niagara Falls power station
  22. Metcalf's father's poem, and Metcalf genealogy
  23. The Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
  24. Problems of Russia's Policy With Respect to China and Japan
  25. History of Ajax Magnethermic
  26. The most important event for Inductotherm
  27. Fright Flight
  28. Black art of carbon production
  29. Polaris Missile
  30. Nuclear Airplane
  31. Nuclear Engine
  32. Molten metal eats through and explodes
  33. Cannon Muskegon Corporation
  34. Metcalf at General Motors Research from April 1955 to Oct 1955
  35. Metcalf pouring superalloy at GE from Oct 1955 to June 1956
  36. Metcalf at Waimet (later Howmet) from June 1956 to July 1957
  37. Black art of carbon production
  38. Project to test NASA hot hydrogen engine
  39. Special Metals Number 9
  40. Metcalf joins Inductotherm group
  41. Device to load materials into a furnace for melting
  42. Bank reneged on a commitment to finance a job in Russia
  43. Inductotherm private airport
  44. NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) and all I know about carbon
  45. NERVA Engine Control Rods
  46. same as 383-Nuke.html
  47. Development of Polaris missle
  48. Ajax NASA
  49. Production of carbon fabrics and threads made from rayon
  50. George Houghton, Aerojet Inspector gives Metcalf Rocket history
  51. Rayon to carbon to graphite
  52. Metcalf buys the control division of the Pelton Water Wheel Company
  53. Rowan's account of firing Consarc President
  54. Kama Purchasing Commission, Ukraine
  55. Role of chromium in vacuum melters
  56. ASEA wins contract for isopress
  57. Induction heating to re-refile tank cannon
  58. Hoover-Ugine Company
  59. Letter to Henry Rowan at Inductotherm
  60. John Mortimer in Rancocas
  61. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  62. Consarc Board of Directors Meeting
  63. Hillbilly
  64. How to produce Calcarb
  65. Newsday, late 1987
  66. Embargo Regulations
  67. Seizure of Goods
  68. Minutes of Dept of Trade, London
  69. Minutes of ECGD Meeting
  70. Rowan Interview
  71. Bombshell looks like dud
  72. Letter to Hank Rowan
  73. Consarc Board Meeting
  74. Minutes of DTI Meeting, London
  75. Stansted Fluid Power
  76. Minutes of DTI Meeting, 3 Oct 85
  77. Letter to IHI Master Metals

Induction Heating

By James Farol Metcalf

Role of Chromium in Vacuum Melters

Early vacuum melters where I worked between 1955 and 1958 used electrolytic chromium to make superalloys that contained about 25% chromium. When I returned to the business of selling vacuum melting furnaces in 1962 they were using smelted chromium that was mined in Rhodesia.

On the 11th of November 1965 the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith issued a declaration of independence from Great Britain and set up a government controlled by the white minority. Great Britain immediately announced sanctions and the UN passed a resolution urging member states to withhold recognition of the new regime. In a 1968 UN resolution requiring mandatory sanctions against Rhodesia.

Rhodesia was the largest supplier of quality pure chromium in the world so vacuum melters in the US had to find alternate suppliers. By the early 1070's I saw the smelted chromium that looked Rhodesian but in boxes labeled made in the USSR. Markets work and embargoes do not.

A purchasing agent from Amtorg assigned the Metallurgimport account asked me to visit New York for lunch at the Four Seasons. Our discussion centered on the metal chromium that was being supplied by the Soviets to the United States Union Carbide. He proposed the use of chromium metal as barter with Cheston to obtain equipment from America. My understanding at the time was that their chromium was coming from Rhodesia that was embargoed by the American government. I don't think he had high official approval for his offer, but it appeared to be a way for the Russians to avoid the expensive commissions being charged by Union Carbide.

I did not know it at the time, but this same trading company that sold chromium was the agent for Machinoimport that sold electroslag equipment for the technology of Paton Institute of Kiev. This New York trading house was suing Consarc, our sister company, for infringing Soviet-owned American patents.

I later learned that the Russian I met at Amtorg had been escorted out of New York by two KGB agents. He was accused of stealing a taxi. After a wild chase by police around New York, he wrecked the taxi and escaped on foot. By this time I had discovered that high government officials allowed the Russian/Rhodesia chromium connection. This may have been the reason the CIA and FBI wanted to talk with me during this time.

In 1986 I finally obtained several documents about these interviews and 95% of the words were blacked out.

« Kama Purchasing Commission, Ukraine
ASEA wins contract for isopress »