The above furnace offers all of these advantages plus a gas process control that is programmed to give unsupervised startup. The temperature controller and the gas controller are interconnected to operate fluidizing gas levels as a function of temperature. The benefit of this system is to allow the furnace startup and heatup to take place before operating personnel arrive for the production day and to provide a system in ready at the start of the work day. (normally this start up needs operator supervision for a period of 3-4 hours during the heat up period.)