John Pledger: Welded Joints - A Learning Process

"On paper, welded joints look marvellous. They're all neat and tidy, no gaps, no problems of ragged edges or things at the wrong angle and so on. But the practice is entirely different and so there was a great partnership in the early '50s between the drawing offices and the designers and the welders on the shop floor. The welders had to demonstrate what was possible, the designers had to make a note of what was possible, and then if it was approved for incorporation in drawings, they simply put on paper what the welder had said was possible. So in a way, the designer was telling the welder what he already knew. But of course gradually, an iterative process like that, everything was improving."