Welding Facts

If two pieces of the same pure metal touch in the vacuum of space, they can permanently fuse together through a process called cold welding.

The Bobcat is the loader on every job site. Louis and Cyril Keller, two welders in Rothsay, Minnesota, built it for a turkey farmer who needed his barn cleaned - from junkyard scrap, in six weeks. Neither brother went past 8th grade. The manure fork was bars off the old Rothsay jail. A farm-equipment maker, Melroe, saw it at the state fair and named it Bobcat. Louis's son Joe says it replaced the pitchfork and the wheelbarrow.

Metallica has spent years quietly paying for trade school. Their All Within My Hands foundation funds welding and other skilled trades. The Metallica Scholars Initiative now covers 93 community colleges in all 50 states, plus Guam. Thousands of students have gone through the program, and most fans have never heard of it.