Acheson, in 1896, patented an application of his, carborundum process to graphite manufacture, and in 1899 the International Acheson Graphite Co.
Many of the furnaces now in constant use depend mainly on this principle, a core of granular carbon fragments stamped together in the direct line between the electrodes, as in Acheson's carborundum furnace, being substituted for the carbon pencils.