{"id":2083,"date":"2013-12-12T16:13:55","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T22:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2014-01-19T10:49:36","modified_gmt":"2014-01-19T16:49:36","slug":"nellie-bly-woman-of-steel-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/nellie-bly-woman-of-steel-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Nellie Bly: Woman of Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part Three: Mother of the 55 gallon steel drum<\/a><\/p>\n

This post is part three of the Nellie Bly story. \u00a0Catch up with parts one and two if you missed them before.<\/p>\n

By the age of 30, in 1985, Bly had met and married Robert Seaman. \u00a0At 70 years old he was two decades her senior, and a millionaire industrialist who owned a the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, based in Brooklyn. \u00a0At this time Bly retired from journalism, and began managing the factory. \u00a0The company had already established itself as a kitchenware manufacturer and was currently producing milk cans and riveted boilers. \u00a0Ten years into their marriage Seaman died, and Bly became president of the company. \u00a0In 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition, Iron Clad Manufacturing was owned exclusively by Bly, and she was being promoted as \u00a0\u201cthe only woman in the world personally managing industries of such a magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a trip to Europe in 1904, where she saw steel containers designed to hold glycerine, Bly was inspired to invent her own metal barrel. \u00a0After many failed attempts including leaking barrels and defective solders, Bly attempted to braze the barrels, but that contaminated the liquid contents. \u00a0She continued to work her designs until she had a barrel that she was proud to sell to the people. \u00a0In only a year from her inspiring trip across the Atlantic, Bly had a design that was patented and ready for the American market.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patent for Bly\u2019s metal barrel<\/p>\n

There was large demand for a container that could transport oil, gasoline, and other precious liquids, and at the time Bly and Iron Clad Manufacturing were the only American company who could meet those needs. \u00a0At the peak of its performance, the company was producing 1,000 barrels a day and hiring around 1,500 employees. \u00a0It is commonly believed that this design became the 55 gallon drum that is used today throughout the world.<\/p>\n

Although the metal barrel was proving successful, legal issues were forming. \u00a0Bly was owner and majority shareholder of both Iron Clad and its subsidiary, American Steel Barrel Company, and in a government affidavit she insisted that the same books were kept for the companies and it would be impossible to differentiate funds between one or the other; the companies were too dependent on each other to be separate entities. When she was asked to prove that all investments made into American Steel by Bly were for the best interest of Iron Clad and not herself, she was charged with fraud. \u00a0Although there was no proof to convict her and she was innocent, creditors began calling and the business began to suffer.<\/p>\n

Iron Clad Manufacturing eventually succumbed to debt and Bly returned to reporting just in time to cover the events of World War I. \u00a0She died at the age of 57 due to pneumonia on January 27, 1922, and was laid to rest in her beloved New York City in the Bronx. \u00a0Although, Bly is most remembered for her impressive reporting skills, contemporary members of the packaging industry know her better has the mother of the 55 gallon drum.<\/p>\n

Thank you for following the story of Nellie Bly: Woman of Steel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part Three: Mother of the 55 gallon steel drum This post is part three of the Nellie Bly story. \u00a0Catch up with parts one and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","latest_post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2110,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/2110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skolnik.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}