Science: Transformer to Furnace

Stick your hand into a powerful electric induction coil. Nothing happens. Then stick a steel rod into it—the metal becomes red hot almost at once. This phenomenon is the basis of the fast-growing industry of induction heating: more induction equipment (using over 175,000,000 watts) was installed in the U.S. last year than in any previous three-year period. And today nearly all of it is used for smithing the weapons of war in arsenals, navy yards, private plants. Induction heating—with welding and substitution of casting for many forging operations—is one of the three big...

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