Page 3 - HIWT Spring 2012 World of Welding

hiwt@welding.org HOBART INSTITUTE OF WELDING TECHNOLOGY

EARLY HISTORY OF ARC WELDING MACHINES IN THE

UNITED STATES

By André A. Odermatt
President
Hobart Institute of
Welding Technology

Hobart Brothers Company has
recently donated to Hobart
Institute several antique

welding machines and other
historic Hobart equipment for
restoration and display at the
Hobart Gallery of Welding
History and throughout the
institute. This is a wonderful
addition to our educational institution and greatly enhances
the understanding of the origins of welding for our visitors.
HIWT sincerely appreciates this generous gift which also
prompts me to explore briefly the early years of commercial
arc welding in the United States. Figure 1. Siemund Wenzel barge

Many believe that commercial arc welding was first introduced
into this country in the early 1900’s by two young Germans
from Hamburg, Siemund and Wenzel. In Germany, inside and
outside repairs on ocean going vessels were done in harbors
using carbon arc and (bare electrode) metallic arc welding.

About 1906, Siemund and Wenzel started to operate barges
for marine repair work in New York Harbor. The first welding
units were probably imported from Germany. See Fig. 1 and
Fig. 2 showing the Siemund Wenzel Barge and its interior.

A few years later they consulted with Professor Morton
Arendt, an electrical engineer from Columbia University, to
build these welding generators locally. This was successful
and Siemund and Wenzel sold these machines (Fig. 3) to Figure 2. Interior of the Siemund Wenzel Barge
others who were doing marine repair work as well as work for
railroad companies. A foundry was using a high voltage DC arc to fill the holes left
in the cast, where the risers were broken off. C & C designed
Figure 3. and built a low voltage machine to do this work. In a short
Siemund time, C & C entered the arc welding field on a larger scale.
Wenzel welder
Their works manager, Mr. Elliott and the test technician, Mr.
O’Blenis, did much work in experimenting with equipment
and arc welding. Mr. Elliott obtained Patent # 1,294,250 on
February 11, 1919 for a metal electrode with a light coating of
an alkaline metal compound for a smoother metal arc process.
Mr. William Siebenmorgen was their consulting engineer on
Another source claims that Siemund sent his German welding many of the welding problems. Mr. George W. Cravens helped
machine to the Crocker & Curtis (C & C) Electric and with experimental work on welding rods and was their sales
Manufacturing Company in New Jersey, where their electrical manager. George Cravens is also the author of many early
engineer Arthur D’Espies successfully duplicated the machine articles on arc welding and welding machines.
(Fig. 4). C & C became interested in arc welding. (Continued on page 5)

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