I'm browsing a book published in 1928 called The Boys' Own Book of Science by Floyd L. Darrow. It has a short chapter on making your own electric furnace for high temperature experiments, like making brass starting by melting copper at 1084°C. I love old books...
@pjungar I was given a book similar to that as a kid that had an *excellent* section on home made model rocketry that definitely would be frowned on today.
@OminousRhombus I collect these books! Sometimes I can only find a PDF which is better than nothing, and often it includes the text along with page images for searching, but I always go for some hard copy printed back in the day when I can find it.
@pjungar This one was great when I was a kid. Rocketry, cloud chambers, homemade electrostatic generators, seismograph, all kinds of awesome stuff for a kid back then.
@OminousRhombus Found a decent hardcover copy for sale and it is on the way. I feel the need to make a Kelvin Water Dropper static electric generator...