(Courtesy of the Oxweld Acetylene Co.)
Fig. 3.—Welding Broken Frame of 5-ton Automobile Truck.
(5) If an automobile owner breaks a frame, he does not consider replacing it with a new one, as the labor alone for stripping his machine and setting it up again, not to mention the cost of the new frame and the time required for this operation, is prohibitive. Rather, he has his car taken to the nearest welder or his portable apparatus to the car and the job is completed within thirty or forty minutes, with the frame at the point of the break made stronger than ever. Locomotive frames are handled in much the same manner, only more time is required and perhaps extra operators, but the important point to be brought out is the fact that on many jobs no dismantling is required and the repair is permanently and quickly executed.
Fig. 4.—Staff of Instructors at the Ordnance Welding School, U. S. A.
(6) An interesting example of the true worth of welding was brought to the attention of the public when the United States entered the European War, and all the interned German vessels, which had been greatly damaged by the orders of their commanding officers, were restored to working condition with the oxy-acetylene and electric welding process. This was considered impossible by many engineers not familiar with the process, insomuch as they looked upon oxy-acetylene welding as applicable only to small parts and here some of the sections which had been blown or struck out of the cast cylinders, etc., weighed many hundreds of pounds. In many instances the ribs of these same vessels were cut most of their depth, but these were restored to working order in a remarkably short time and the results were more convincing than any words.
(7) Cutting with the oxy-acetylene process is just the opposite from that of welding. The latter might be considered constructive and the former destructive. In the case of welding, two parts are brought to a molten condition along the line to be joined and both fused together. Whereas in cutting, one piece of metal, when brought to a red heat, is cut in two by an oxidizing flame. Cutting has not the wide scope that welding has, for it can only be applied successfully at the present day to wrought iron, rolled and cast steel. While it is limited in its scope, the speed of this process in severing large masses of metal is very spectacular and appeals forcibly to the observer.
(8) Probably the world’s first awakening to the real meaning of oxy-acetylene cutting came when the U. S. battleship “Maine,” was being taken from Havana Harbor. All the heavy armor plate and seemingly immovable wreckage was cut into small sections which could be handled easily. This was all accomplished with the cutting torch, which seems to eat its way through metal with the same ease that a hot knife goes through butter.
