Arc eye, or a flash can be got from any welding process that forms an electric arc.
What happens is, the UVA rays hit the outer protective cover of yer eye called the cornea.
Because of the roundness of this, most rays bounce off and quite often a blast full in the face straight on gives no problem.
On the other hand rays sneaking in from the side quite often result in a flash.
When you get a flash, apart from being temporarily "blinded" by the intensity of the light, nothing untoward happens for several hours.
Usually, about 8 pm, whilst watching the box, or on here, your eyes will start to continually run with water. At this point you ...err...know!!
This is the start of a very painful 4 to 6 hours unless you have some anti arc flash drops in your cupboard.
What has happened is the cornea has been burned, causing scarring. This, combined with the eyelid movement aggravates the burn, giving a sensation identical to having sand in your eye or eyes, as sometimes it can be only one eye affected.
The reason it goes on it`s own after about 6 hours is that, contrary to popular belief, no permanent damage occurs, as the cornea repairs it`s self or resurfaces every 4 or 5 hours.
To assuage anyones fears of welding; I have had numerous bouts of said affliction, over the years and apart from having to wear glasses to read (age) my longer vision is nearly as good as it always has been.
Coming back to Doc`s joke about gloves. The biggest danger from any of these welding processes
is the action of said rays on unprotected skin, over a long period I hasten to add, is not just a nasty sunburn, but skin cancer
And yes, clear glasses, or even contact lenses will stop it happening