Soldering, Brazing, and Welding

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Apart from the use of rivets, screws, etc., metal is commonly joined by soldering, brazing, or welding, three groups of processes that have one thing in com mon - the use of heat to fuse either the metals them selves or an alloy which is interposed to consolidate the joint. The word solder is derived through the French from a Latin word meaning solid. Soldering may be soft or hard. Soft-solder ing uses lead-tin alloys which are easily melted in a bunsen gas flame or with a hot iron or bit; while hard soldering employs a silver-copper alloy, to melt which a mouth blowpipe at least is necessary. Brazing is hard-soldering with spelter (brass), and a forge or a heavy blowlamp or a powerful blowpipe must be employed to provide the heat.