AbstractsChemistry

"In the steel industry it is a common metallurgical practice to add fluospar [sic] (CaF₂), to a slag to render it more fluid. Ladoo states that the fluospar [sic], thus added, forms eutechtics with the silica, alumina, calcium and barium sulfates, rendering them more fusible. The fluospar [sic] does not decompose, but forms solutions or eutechtics with other substances in the slag. He further states that calcium chloride (CaCl₂) has been used for this purpose but is apparently not as active, necessitating larger quantities per charge. It is also probably more expensive. Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) is commonly used as a flux in the ceramic industry. It occurs naturally in some clays and is added to most white ware bodies other than hard paste porcelains to increase the degree of vitrification. it was proposed, therefore, to replace the calcium carbonate in a whiteware body with the halitic salts of calcium. The heavier salts, the bromide (CaBr₂) and the iodide (CaI₂), were not used because of their cost, their solubility, and their low decomposition temperatures" – Object, p. 3.