An Adiabatic Apparatus for the Study of Self-Heating of Poorly Conducting Materials

Abstract

A small automatic furnace has been designed for the study of the thermal decomposition of wood and other combustible materials. After a sample has been brought nearly to thermal equilibrium at any desired temperature, the furnace temperature control system is automatically changed to allow the sample to self‐heat up to a temperature of 500°C with small external heat loss or gain. Weight changes of the specimen during the test are continuously monitored and recorded. The control system is designed to stop the operation automatically after the specimen temperature has increased to some previously selected level.