Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the manufacture of optical couplers, comprising the steps of (a) removing the jacket material over a short distance from two or more optical fibres, (b) bringing the jacketless portions of the optical fibers in contact with each other, (c) fusing the optical fibers together within the contact area and drawing them into tapers. In order that the process would be simpler and easier to control, the method according to the invention is characterized in that the optical fibers are fused by heating them by means of an arc substantially parallel to the optical fibers. The arc is excited in a chamber confined in the direction of the radius of the fibers, and it is excited and extinguished at a low frequency so that the arc strikes at arbitrarily varying points around the fibers.