There was a rigorous chemical based management of the melting process that was claimed to preclude any chemical based effects that would produce increased production of Fe–Si alloy. The key quality control in smelting is the analysis of the product of the smelting. Usually, samples are taking after the product is produced and latter shown to the customer to assure that the product meets quality standards to attest to its purity.
"The only source of Si entering the smelter furnace was the quartz raw material and that of Fe was the scrap steel (except for minor additional amounts of Fe originating from the steel casing of the consumable Söderberg carbon electrodes). Very careful vigil of the weights of daily input feed of raw materials and output alloy drained out as also the electrical energy consumption was maintained. It was evident that roughly 20% more metal than could be accounted for from the input feed was being produced and consequently we have been obliged to come to the conclusion that anomalous quantities of Si (2.8 ton/day) and Fe (1.45 ton/day) were being synthesized during the smelting process." On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 10:58 PM <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: > In reply to Axil Axil's message of Wed, 8 May 2019 19:09:40 -0400: > Hi, > [snip] > >Those mass factors were covered in this analysts as follows: > > > >Quartz (33.4 ton), charcoal (with fixed carbon content of 13.2 > >ton) and scrap steel (5.1 ton) while the daily output production of Fe–Si > >alloy (73.5% Si) was 24.75 ton. From the total weights > >of Si and Fe in the input feed and assuming 100% recovery of the metals, > >the daily output alloy production could at best have > >been only 20.5 ton. > > That's assuming that the only thing in the output was Fe-Si. If CO was also > included then 24.75 is quite reasonable. > > (Note that when the output product was chemically analyzed, the CO from the > sample may well have simply disappeared into the air, as a consequence of > the > process used to analyze the sample.) > Note also that the total input mass = 51.7 tons. > > >However to our surprise throughout the 11-week period > >the total daily Fe–Si alloy (with 73.5% Si) output was > >consistently 24.75 ton, corresponding to a daily “anomalous” excess metal > >production of 4.25 ton of Fe–Si alloy. > > Consistency would imply a fixed ratio, which in turn seems to imply a > chemical > bond with fixed ratios. > > See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_pentacarbonyl > > by which I don't mean to imply that that was the precise chemical > involved, but > rather only to show that CO has an affinity for Fe. > > Furthermore as evidenced by https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571066, > it > also has an affinity for Si. Therefore I think my suggestion may well be > reasonable, and furthermore seems to fit the facts a lot better than other > suggestions so far. > > BTW, CO is dangerous for humans to inhale precisely because the CO molecule > binds with the Fe in hemoglobin, preventing the hemoglobin from binding to > Oxygen, which in turn results in suffocation. > > Regards, > > > Robin van Spaandonk > > local asymmetry = temporary success > >
