Suitable pitch is formed into a filament continuously and upward by various means located at the bottom of a vessel containing a hot buoyant liquid. The liquid buoys up the fragile filament as it ascends the vessel from a lower region held at one temperature to an upper region where the temperature is about 450.degree.-700.degree.C. The filament emerges upward out of the liquid to move further through a still higher temperature (>900.degree.C) zone which upon leaving the previously formed pitch is a carbon filament. The liquid can be a blend of suitable molten inorganic salts or a molten inorganic oxide.