They weighed about forty pounds apiece and were charged
with oil emulsion, thermit and metallic sodium. Sodium decomposes water
so that if any attempt were made to put out with a hose a fire started
by one of these bombs the stream of water would be instantaneously
changed into a jet of blazing hydrogen.
Besides its use in combining and separating different elements the
electric furnace is able to change a single element into its various
forms. Carbon, for instance, is found in three very distinct forms: in
hard, transparent and colorless crystals as the diamond, in black,
opaque, metallic scales as graphite, and in shapeless masses and powder
as charcoal, coke, lampblack, and the like. In the intense heat of the
electric arc these forms are convertible one into the other according to
the conditions. Since the third form is the cheapest the object is to
change it into one of the other two. Graphite, plumbago or "blacklead,"
as it is still sometimes called, is not found in many places and more
rarely found pure.
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