Despite record-long high unemployment, a depressed stock market, and an abysmal business climate industry modernized 1930s U.S. economy. Across dozens of major industries, over a short time span, a surge in new technologies transformed American culture. Compare an automobile, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a bus, airplane, or a locomotive made in 1929 to those built in 1939, or the models of the post-war 1940s. In each case, the later designs bear a closer resemblance to their 21st counterparts than their 1920s predecessors. There are countless other excellent examples, not just in transportation and home appliances, but in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, home construction, material sciences, packaging, industrial processes, and manufacturing equipment. Welding was one of those lesser-known technologies.