Investigative journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, better known by her pseudonym Nellie Bly, held two U.S. patents in manufacturing.
Following her lauded expose on brutality and neglect in late nineteenth-century mental health asylums and her record-breaking seventy-two day trip around the world, Bly had a second career as an industrialist. With her husband’s health failing, Bly took over as the head of Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. around the turn of the twentieth century. Bly invented and received patents for a novel milk can (patent number 697,553) and a stacking garbage can (patent number 703,711). Although the company’s financial issues led to its eventual bankruptcy, Iron Clad’s lasting legacy can be seen in the 55-gallon oil drum still used widely today, modeled on a popular steel barrel manufactured during Bly’s tenure.
Bly eventually returned to journalism. She covered the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Procession, the first suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. and the first large, organized political march on the nation’s capital. In her article, bluntly entitled “Suffragists Are Men’s Superiors,” she predicted correctly that it would be 1920 before women were able to vote in national elections.
Learn more about Nellie Bly and her interdisciplinary career: http://bit.ly/30zOv8h #WomensHistoryMonth #ValiantWomenOfTheVote
U.S. Patent no. 697,553
Title: Milk Can
Patented: April 15, 1902
U.S. Patent no. 703,711
Title: Garbage or Refuse Can
Patented: July 1, 1902