Direct High-Temperature Ohmic Heating of Metals as Liquid Pipes

When a sufficiently high electric current is passed through a liquid metal, the electromagnetic pressure pinches off the liquid metal and interrupts the flow of current. For the first time the pinch effect has been overcome by use of centrifugal acceleration. By rotation of a pipe of liquid metal, tin or bismuth or their alloys, at sufficiently high speed, it can be heated electrically without intermission of the electric current. One may now heat liquid metallic substances, by resistive (ohmic) heating, to 5000 degrees K and perhaps higher temperatures.