be conducted in any reaction vessel in which the desired process conditions can be maintained such as a belt furnace the gaseous compounds hydrogen gas water vapor and inert gas comprising the reaction atmosphere may be fed to the reaction vessel through individual feed lines or preferably as a combined feed by way of example a mixture of inert gas and 1 volume percent of hydrogen gas is bubbled through water at ambient temperatures to control the humidity in the gas mixture to about 1 volume percent as received commercial metal plates and pins of kovar astm f 15 were assembled without pretreatment with borosilicate glass beads corning 7052 into a conventional graphite fixture the metal and the glass had coefficients of thermal expansion of 57 1 62 1 u00d7 10 7 cm cm u00b0 c and 46 u00d7 10 7 cm cm u00b0 c respectively a conventional belt furnace was purged of air and then filled with a gaseous mixture containing 98 0 volume percent of nitrogen gas and one volume percent of each of water vapor and hydrogen gas the furnace was heated to a temperature of 1850 u00b0 f the assembled parts were then introduced into the furnace without disturbing either the.