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Lincoln Electric Co. Ltd

British arm of the Cleveland welding company, set up at Welwyn Garden City in 1935 and by 1960 the largest maker of DC arc-welding sets in the country. Its L.R. 150 and L.R. 200 portable welding generators of 1960 were designed to hang off the back of a Series II 109 and run from its power take-off, a fitment approved by the Rover Company.

History

Lincoln Electric began in Cleveland, Ohio, on 5 December 1895, when John C. Lincoln put $200 into a direct-current motor business; the firm was incorporated in 1906, launched its first variable-voltage arc welder in 1911 and, under his brother James F. Lincoln from 1913, became the world's largest producer of arc-welding equipment and consumables. The British company was established in 1935 in a small factory on Broadwater Road, Welwyn Garden City, and later moved to a purpose-built 180,000 sq ft works with its own railway siding on Black Fan Road, making electrodes, welding sets and accessories; during the war it advertised itself as the world's largest arc-welding maker, in 1954 it also built ground power units for starting jet aircraft including the Comet, and by 1961 it employed 365 people.

The Land Rover connection is the L.R. range of portable welding generators of 1960, the L.R. 150 and L.R. 200, mounted on a tubular frame hung from the tailboard hinges of a 109-inch Land Rover and belt-driven from the rear power take-off, so that a contractor or estate could take welding current to the job. Lincoln Electric (U.K.) Ltd remains the group's British subsidiary.

Vehicles in this registry (1)

Sources & citations

Maker record updated 2026-09-11T08:59:46.246Z · status: researched