Abstract: Disclosed is an ore-smelting electrical furnace bath, in which smelting is accomplished with electrodes buried into the melted slag, comprising an externally cooled metallic jacket, a lining forming the walls and the bottom of the bath, and a sealing layer interposed therebetween. The walls of the bath in the melted slag zone are made from graphite-reinforced refractory blocks having a thickness at which the total thermal resistance of these blocks and of the sealing layer ranges from 0.01 to 0.09 m.sup.2 hr.deg./kcal. The lower portion of the aforesaid walls and the bottom are made from refractory carbon blocks.

Abstract: Disclosed is a non-consumable electrode for arc processes, comprising a housing made of a heat and electrically conductive material and having an interior to supply a cooling liquid thereinto, a yoke made of a heat and electrically conductive material, fixed on said housing and having an interior to supply a cooling liquid therein, an active insert rigidly fixed in said yoke and formed as a truncated cone whose minor base faces the portion whereon an electrode drop region of an electric arc rests and whose major base faces the cooling interior and has a recess therein shaped as a spherical segment.