Silicon is next to oxygen the commonest element in the world. It forms a
quarter of the earth's crust, yet it is unfamiliar to most of us. That
is because it is always found combined with oxygen in the form of silica
as quartz crystal or sand. This used to be considered too refractory to
be blown but is found to be easily manipulable at the high temperatures
now at the command of the glass-blower. So the chemist rejoices in
flasks that he can heat red hot in the Bunsen burner and then plunge
into ice water without breaking, and the cook can bake and serve in a
dish of "pyrex," which is 80 per cent. silica.
At the beginning of the twentieth century minute specimens of silicon
were sold as laboratory curiosities at the price of $100 an ounce. Two
years later it was turned out by the barrelful at Niagara as an
accidental by-product and could not find a market at ten cents a pound.
Silicon from the electric furnace appears in the form of hard,
glittering metallic crystals.
An alloy of iron and silicon, ferro-silicon, made by heating a mixture
of iron ore, sand and coke in the electrical furnace, is used as a
deoxidizing agent in the manufacture of steel.
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