Welding is one of the processes whereby two metals are joined together. The two metals to be joined are melted (sometimes in the presence of a molten filler metal) and made to intermingle by applying intense heat. The bond formed between the two metals, being made of a mix of both the metals, is incredibly strong. This process is different from soldering and brazing where the joining metal is a different metal with different properties.
Electric arc welding utilizes the incredible heat generated by an electric arc as the means of melting the metals. A power source is linked to the metal to be worked on and, at the other end of the circuit, to an electrode of some kind. It is between this electrode and the surface of the work metal that the electric arc forms.
Like so many inventions, its creation cannot strictly be allotted to one person or group of people; the arc welder as it exists today is the product of many individually patented innovations, all implemented to improve on the arc welder's function. However, the first patent relating to the application of an electric arc in the welding process is best attributed to Russian Nikolai Benardos and Pole Stanislaus Olszewski in 1885.
Auguste De Meritens had been using electric arcs to join lead plates together. Benardos, his student at the Cabot Laboratory, took this to the next level, creating and patenting, with Olszewski, an electrode holder—named an Electrogefest—that formed the basis for carbon arc welding.
