Subsidiary Electrical Heating for Verneuil Furnaces in the USSR

Abstract

A visit to the USSR in November 1974 enabled the author to see some of the remarkable work in Verneuil furnace design at the Institute of Crystallography of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow (Leninskii Prospekt 59) that appears to be almost completely unknown outside the Soviet Union. This Institute, apart from its interest in the structure of crystals, is also one of the major centers of research on crystal growth in the Soviet Union. Its work on the growth of alumina crystals, particularly ruby, under Professor K. S. Bagdasarov has a particularly high reputation. The Special Construction Bureau at the Institute has designed and put into small-scale production a massive Verneuil furnace with a rugged subsidiary electrical heater which seems to offer a number of advantages, particularly where the growth of large crystals is concerned. In view of Dr. Falckenberg’s comments in Chapter 3 on the difficulties associated with the incorporation of subsidiary electrical heating in a Verneuil furnace, this apparently highly successful design seemed to merit special comment—hence this brief note.