Whip Care

The history of joining metals goes back several millennia, with the earliest examples of welding from the Bronze Age and Iron Age in Europe and the Middle East. The solder was used in the construction of the Delhi Iron Pillar, India, erected about AD 310 and weighing 5.4 tons metric. [1] The Middle Ages brought advances in forge welding, which blacksmiths to repeatedly beat and heated the metal until union occurred. In 1540, Vannoccio Biringuccio de la pirotechnia published, including descriptions of the forging operation. Renaissance craftsmen were skilled in the process, and the industry continued to grow during the following centuries. [2] However, the weld was transformed during the nineteenth century. In 1800, Sir Humphry Davy discovered the electric arc, and advances in an arc welding machine with the inventions of metal electrode by a Russian, Nikolai Slavyanov, and an American, C. L. Coffin in the late 1800s, even as carbon arc welding, which used a carbon electrode, gained popularity. Around 1900, A. P. Strohmenger released a coated metal electrode in Britain, which gave a more stable arc, and in 1919, alternating current welding was invented by C. J. Holslag, but did not become popular for another decade. [3]

Resistance welding was also developed during the final decades of the nineteenth century, with the first patents going to Elihu Thomson in 1885, who produced further advances over the next 15 years. Thermite welding was invented in 1893, and around that time, another process was established, gas welding. Acetylene was discovered in 1836 by Edmund Davy, but its use in welding was not practical until about 1900, when he developed a convenient torch. [4] At first, gas welding was one of the most popular welding methods due to its portability and relatively low cost. However, as the 20th century progressed, most welding projects fell in preferences for industrial applications. Was largely replaced by arc welding, to the extent that continued being developed metal covers for the electrode (known as flux), which stabilize the arc and shield the base material of impurities.

The First World War caused a major upsurge in the use of welding processes with the various military forces trying to determine which of the several new welding processes would be best. The British primarily used arc welding, even constructing a ship, the Fulagar, with an entirely welded hull. Americans were more hesitant, but began to recognize the benefits of arc welding when the process allowed them to quickly repair their ships after the German attack in the port of New York at the beginning of the war. Also arc welding was first applied to aircraft during the war, as some German airplane fuselages were constructed using the process.