It fits snugly into a receptacle cut out for it in the center of the cube, and is intended to protect the steel of the cube proper from the intense heat.

This heat reaches the furnace by electric wires which enter the cube from the sides, as you see, being brought here by a conduit along the river-bed from a large power-plant five miles away.

Twenty-eight large wires are necessary to bring it; I own the power-plant, ostensibly for the operation of a small sugar refinery.

I may add that the furnace is a variation of the principle employed by Professor Moissan, in Paris." He turned to Mr.Czenki.

"You may remember having heard me mention him ?" "I remember," the expert acquiesced grimly.
"Now, pure carbon is vaporized, as you perhaps know, at a fraction less than five thousand degrees Fahrenheit," Mr.Wynne continued.