200 THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRIC WELDING 



through the splendid work performed by the United States Navy in refitting for 

 service the seized German ships damaged by their crews with the intent of putting 

 them permanently out of service. Almost without exception the work of vandal- 

 ism consisted of damaging the cast-iron parts of the machinery equipment in the 

 belief that cast-iron could not be welded by any method available in this country. 

 But the naval ofificers in charge of the repair work showed that Americans could 

 weld cast-iron. The repairs were carried out with remarkable ease, expedition and 

 success, and while by no means analogous to the problem of welding in its application 

 to ship construction, the results attracted widespread attention to the art in 

 marine circles throughout the world and brought into prominence its possibilities 

 in connection with our shipbuilding program. 



About this time, the General Engineering Committee of the Council of Na- 

 tional Defense was investigating the application of spot-welding to ship construc- 

 tion. In January of this year the committee was dissolved and the Electric Weld- 

 ing Committee of the United States Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corpora- 

 tion, was appointed to investigate the whole field of electric welding and to advise the 

 Emergency Fleet Corporation as to how the shipbuilding program might be speeded 

 up and work economized by a wider adoption of the process. 



The committee is composed of shipbuilders, electrical engineers, many promi- 

 nent physicists and metallurgists, and of representatives of the Emergency Fleet 

 Corporation, Classification Societies and Bureau of Standards, with Professor 

 Comfort A. Adams, of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology and President of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, as 

 chairman.* 



Much useful work has already been accomplished by the committee, data col- 

 lected, investigations and research work carried out and important facts established. 

 In the meantime similar investigations and research work were being conducted 

 abroad, particularly in Great Britain, where an exhaustive series of practical ex- 

 periments has recently been completed by the Technical Committee of Lloyd's 

 Register of Shipping. 



The results of these investigations have been not only encouraging, but have 

 led to the conclusion that, under certain prescribed conditions, an electrically welded 

 joint may with reasonable safety be applied to the main structure of a vessel. 



For several months past, the writer has had the great privilege of participating 

 in the pioneer work undertaken by the Welding Committee, and it is the purpose of 

 this paper to review as briefly as possible what has already been done and the im- 

 mediate possibilities of its further application to ship construction in the light of 

 the present development of the art of electric welding and the knowledge thus far 

 acquired; embracing in this necessarily short review a description of the various 

 methods of welding, the apparatus and layout involved and minor practical features. 



♦Representatives of the gas welding industry have recently heen added to this committee, and the title 

 changed to "The Welding Committee." 



