In other words the application of intense heat at one point in the mixture was sufficient to fuse the metals and start the battle between the iron oxide on one side and the aluminum on the other, in the immediate vicinity of the point where the heat was applied. As the few particles set off by the ignition powder struggled for the oxygen they themselves generated heat--terriffic heat--which gave a high enough temperature to start the particles that were their next-door neighbours to struggling for the oxygen. These in turn generated heat to set off their own neighbours, and so it went. In far less time than it takes to read this, Doctor Goldschmidt saw the whole crucible of dead mineral particles take on life and become white-hot liquid metal. Scientifically speaking, the reaction had spread through the whole mass in less than a minute, but what Doctor Goldschmidt saw was a blinding white light, more intense than any arc lamp, throwing off a little cloud of white smoke or vapour. Apparently the whole thing was burning up. He only heard a little hissing as the metals battled for the precious oxygen. There was no explosion, there was no violent scattering of molten particles, and there were no noxious life-destroying gases such as come from the explosion of gunpowder, dynamite, or even the burning of coal. And yet the seething, molten metals in the crucible reached a temperature second or third to the highest ever registered by man. Five thousand four hundred degrees--think of it!--more than half as hot as science tells us is the sun which makes this world of ours habitable. But what was the result of this temperature which staggers the imagination? Just this. Doctor Goldschmidt knew that the aluminum had won the prize of battle and had paid the price of victory. The conquered iron was at the bottom of the crucible, a molten mass of pure metal, while the victorious aluminum, seething on the top, was nothing but slag (aluminum oxide). Perhaps there may be a little lesson in this drama of the metals, because while the iron was vanquished it emerged from the stress of conflict purified and fitted for its high service to mankind, while the more aggressive aluminum came to the top an almost useless product, ruined by the prize for which it had fought. Another interesting point about this reaction is that the heat produced by a certain quantity of the mixture is no greater in total volume than the heat that would be produced by the burning of an equal amount of anthracite coal. The difference is that the thermit process concentrates all the heat in a few seconds whereas the coal gives off its heat bit by bit for a long period of time.