Originally Posted by
Bekologist
then reliable, automated machine welding came to the bike world; somewhere along the line and lugs=cheap and welds=expensive flip flopped. (probably because of grant)
I thought I read somewhere that the point of lugs was they allowed lower temperature joining - brazing instead of welding - so they put less heat stress on the tubes, and welding came to the fore when tubes began to become available that could tolerate the heat.