In making up a charge, the ores and fluxes, whose chemical compositions have been determined, are mixed so as to form out of the components, not to be reduced to the metallic or sulphide state, typical slags (silicates of ferrous and calcium oxides, incidentally of aluminium oxide, which have been found to do successful work).
Magnetic induction, like other fluxes such as electrical, thermal or fluid currents, is defined with reference to an area; it satisfies the same conditions of continuity as the electric current does, and in isotropic media it depends on the magnetic force just as the electric current depends on the electromotive force.
Aided by grants from the Prussian government, these workers systematically investigated the effect of introducing a large number of different chemical substances (oxides) into vitreous fluxes.
The bullion left in the retorts is then melted in black-lead crucibles, with the addition of small quantities of suitable fluxes, e.g.
No evidence of smelting ores with fluxes is offered, but casting from metal melted in open fires is assumed.
