VICTOR EQUIPMENT CO history

French engineers Edmond Fouché and Charles Picard were the first to develop oxygen-acetylene welding in 1903.

In 1905, he formed the Harris Calorific Company to manufacture and sell oxy-acetylene welding and cutting equipment.

The International Harvester sign hanging in the shop likely hails from the days of Louis A. Rugg, who initially used the nineteenth-century barn as the warehouse to the Main Street store he acquired in 1908.

Victor Equipment Co. was founded in San Francisco in 1913 by L.W. Stettner after losing an eye during a welding accident, he decided to design safer welding equipment and accessories.

In 1916, Elmer Smith from Minneapolis, MN founded Smith Equipment Company to build oxy-fuel welding and cutting equipment.

In 1921, brothers Winston F. and Shelley M. Stoody opened up the Stoody Welding Co. to service the growing farm implement and tractor repair business.

From their experiments begun in 1922, they developed a technique, called hardfacing, that would stay with the industry for many decades.

In 1928, they changed the name Victor Welding Equipment Company.

Tweco stands for Townsend Welding Equipment Co., and was started in the basement of Ray Townsend, of Wichita, Kansas, in 1936.

Rugg passed away in 1942, but his business continued as L.A. Rugg Co., dealing in International Harvester and Case products as well as farm supplies before making the transition to lawn mower repair and service.

In 1946, Stoody developed the industry's first application for submerged arc processing for hardfacing various types of equipment parts.

Prosperity continued following the war, and in 1950, he moved to a new manufacturing facility in Wichita.

Victor Zinder, founder of Victor Products, started the company in 1953, but his interest in the concessions industry started long before.

The two men developed the plasma torch in 1957 after experimenting with a high-temperature electric-arc torch.

By 1960, sales of plasma cutting equipment had reached $1 million, and Browning and Thorpe moved the company to a plant in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

In 1966, Russell O. Adams bought the former L.A. Rugg property and remodeled the barn to include a sales room, parts department and storage space.

Browning was founder and chairman of the company through 1968, when he sold his interest.

Tweco showed off its new MIG gun, a process using metal inert gas and electrodes for a faster weld, at the 1969 American Welding Society show.

The move paid off, as in 1970, the company introduced the PAK 40, a 400-amp cutting system.

These innovations made the company a popular purchasing target, and in 1977, it was acquired by Palco Industries.

In 1979, Stoody was acquired by Palco Industries, and six years later, Palco sold it to Polaris, a large metallurgical company.

The floorcare products unit came about through the acquisition of Clarke Industries in 1986, one of James Mills' first acquisitions.

After Thermadyne acquired Palco in 1987, the company continued its trend toward smaller, more affordable plasma cutting units.

Palco was changed to Thermadyne Industries Inc., and Thermadyne Holding Corporation was formed in 1989 to accommodate other diverse acquisitions.

As business grew, Victor’s sons, Mitch and Marty started to help and eventually took over the business after Victor’s passing in 1992.

It emerged several months later as a publicly held firm, trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange beginning in 1994.

The latter company was divested in 1996.

Illinois Tool Works (ITW) purchased the company in 1998.

Kurt Nachbargauer, the IHT managing director with more than 30 years experience, took over running the company in 2004 when Doctor Schmall retired.

In 2014, Victor and all of Thermadyne were sold to ESAB.

In 2017, IHT announced the launch of a revolutionary new oxy-fuel torch named the FIT + Three.