Author: GAWDA MEDIA

A boat’s engine problems laid the unlikely foundation of Huber Supply Company. Elmer Smith was on a boat trip on Lake Erie one weekend when his boat developed engine trouble. He was stranded at a boat works outside of Port Clinton, Ohio, that wouldn’t be open until the following Monday. However, Nelson Schmidt, who was the son of the owner of the boat shop, worked all day and night to help get Smith’s boat up and running. Elmer was so impressed that he told Nelson that if he was ever in Minneapolis looking for work as a welder to look…

Dale Oxygen, Inc. has been a family owned and operated business since the company was founded in 1939. Harry W. Bennear founded the company after working as a welder in the Pittsburgh area during the 1930s. In 1937, Bennear moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to work alongside a relative for the Air Reduction Company. Through connections made at the Air Reduction Company, Harry became an authorized Airco distributor and opened Dale Oxygen, Inc. in the Dale section of Johnstown. He began by selling and delivering Oxygen and Acetylene gas cylinders, oxy/fuel torches and welding electrodes for welding and cutting applications. In…

Robert Norman Goss founded R.N. Goss Gas Products during the Great Depression in 1934 in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Just one year prior, unemployment had risen from 3% to 25% of the nation’s workforce. The original site of Goss Gas was on Seventh Street in Oil City. At the time, no propane or welding cylinders were filled on site. Goss Gas moved to its current location in Reno, Pennsylvania in 1960, shortly after N. Grant Goss joined his brother in business. Together, they operated Goss Gas until the early 1970s. The third generation of the family joined the business in 1974,…

Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company was founded in 1929 in Auburn, Maine, by Joseph W. Albiston under the name Maine Gas Service. The company provided sales and service to home propane customers. Throughout its history, Maine Oxy has been dedicated to providing quality products at competitive prices, superior safety solutions and exceptional customer service. Since its founding, the company has expanded outside of Auburn to include several locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. In 2015, Maine Oxy acquired three locations in Canada, under the name VAC Oxy. In total, the company now operates 19 retail locations throughout New England…

“You’re only as good as your last interaction with a customer.” That’s the attitude that Delille Oxygen Company has adopted as it celebrates its 95th anniversary in 2019. President Josh Weinmann does not want the company to rest on its laurels as it heads toward its centennial anniversary. “What has made Delille successful these past 95 years has been being able to provide solutions to our customers and being innovative,” Weinmann says. “Being able to produce gas and the immense gas knowledge we have been able to provide has gotten us here. To move forward for the next 95 years,…

Arcos started in 1919 as the R.D. Thomas and Company. Until 1931, electrodes were imported from Arcos S.A. in Brussels, Belgium. In 1931, the first heavy coated hand-dipped electrodes for welding stainless and other specialty steels were manufactured in the U.S. In 1936, R.D. Thomas and Company merged with the world’s most advanced producer of coated electrodes, Arcos Belgium. Six years later, the company developed the first 307 stainless steel electrode to weld armor plates instead of the then scarce and expensive stainless 310. In the pinch of war time shortages, this was a real advantage, as the war created…

The American Welding Society was founded in 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a mission to meet a national need to support welding during World War I. President Woodrow Wilson had asked Harvard Professor Comfort Avery Adams to chair the Welding Committee of the Emergency Fleet Corp., which was merged with the National Welding Council to form AWS. Adams served as the first president of the Society. The objectives of the newly formed society were, “To advance the science and art of welding in all the branches. To afford the members the opportunity for the interchange of ideas with respect to…

In 1944, Lawrence Amzy Morgan purchased the Brian Battie Company, a soda fountain service company, established in 1909, that distributed carbon dioxide gas and fountain syrup to drug stores, restaurants and taverns. In 1946, Morgan changed the company name to City Carbonic Sales & Service and incorporated the company in 1964. For the next 53 years, City Carbonic continued to focus on the food service industry, distributing CO2 in high-pressure cylinders that needed to be requalified for continued service every five years. As this became cost-prohibitive with their current vendor, City Carbonic invested in the equipment to provide its own…

Federated Insurance was founded in 1904 by a group of equipment dealers seeking better value for their premium dollar. In the early 20th century, the company began providing property coverage to auto dealers, machine shops, petroleum marketers and contractors throughout the Midwest. From the beginning, Federated’s relationships with associations like GAWDA have strengthened its understanding of the industries it helps protect. Those relationships and input from association members have played a key role in the evolution of Federated Insurance. Industry insights help shape the products and services that Federated offers. “Our growth into a national organization with 35,000+ policyholders can…

Oscar Kjellberg founded ESAB — Elektriska Svetsnings AtkieBolaget (Swedish for Electrical Welding Limited Company) — on September 12, 1904 in Gothenburg, Sweden, a port city. Trained as a ship engineer, Kjellberg developed the world’s first coated electrode to solve contamination and embrittlement issues in ship building, laying the foundations for a totally new epoch of welding, as his invention made it possible to exclude the oxygen in the air surrounding the workpiece. ESAB’s biggest accomplishment is to have established a track record of innovative solutions, whether through internal R&D efforts, acquisitions or collaborations which created entire process and product categories…