C. L. Coffin

Charles L. Coffin of Detroit was awarded U.S. Patent 428,459 for an arc welding process using a metal electrode. This was the first time that metal melted from the electrode carried across the arc to deposit filler metal in the joint to make a weld. About 10 years earlier, N.G. Slavianoff, a Russian, presented the same idea of transferring metal across an arc, but to cast metal in a mold.

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