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Title: |
1916 Portrait-E. W. Bliss |
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Source: |
The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, V15 1916 pg 23 |
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Insert Date: |
10/20/2011 8:07:44 PM |
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BLISS, Eliphalet Williams, inventor and manufacturer, was born at Fly Creek, near Cooperstown, N. Y., Apr. 12, 1836, son of Dr. John Stebbins and Ruby Ann (Williams) Bliss. He was descended from Nathaniel Bliss, who came to America from England with his father in 1635, settling at Springfield, Mass., the line running through Nathaniel's son, Williams, his son, Gad. and his son, John, the grandfather of Eliphalet W. Bliss. In his sixteenth year he was apprenticed to a machinist and at the ago of twenty-one, having served his time, he was employed in the shops of the New York Central railroad at Syracuse, N. Y. Subsequently he entered the employ of the Charles Parker Gun Co., at Meriden, Conn., and he was manager of the company's factory at the outbreak of the civil war. He enlisted in Company I of the Third Connecticut regiment and was in action at the first battle of Bull Run. After being mustered out of service as corporal, he returned to the gun factory in Meriden, Conn., but in February, 1866, removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., and worked one year for Andrew Campbell, inventor of the Campbell printing press. A year later he formed a partnership with John Mays under the name of Mays & Bliss to engage in the press and die business. In 1871 John Mays sold his share to Mr. Bliss' cousin. J. H. Williams, and later Mr. Bliss purchased Williams' interest and conducted the business alone. He devised special machinery for stamping out cans for holding kerosene oil and paints. In 1886 he formed a stock company admitting eleven of his employees to a share in the profits, and in 1890 the present E. W. Bliss Co. was incorporated with a capital of $1,250,000, which was afterwards increased to $2,000,000. The company manufactures a line of special presses adapted for sheet metal work. It bought out the business of the Styles & Parker Press Co. and later the U. S. Projectile Co., of which Mr. Bliss was president, and since then his company has been producing the Bliss-Leavitt torpedo. The E. W. Bliss company manufactures a line of special power stamping machines, automobile parts, torpedoes, shrapnel and armor-piercing projectiles. At the time of his death the company's plant covered eighty-five city lots and employed 13,000 men. In addition to the above enterprises, he was for many years a director of the Brooklyn City Railroad Co., the Kings County Trust Co. and the Brooklyn Bank. He was married June 19, 1865, to Annie Elizabeth, (laughter of Charles H. Metcalf, his former employer in Fly Creek, and had one daughter, Eva Metcalf, wife of James Warren Lane, who succeeded to the presidency of the Bliss company. Mr. Bliss died in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 21, 1903. |
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1916 Portrait-E. W. Bliss
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