Strange Northern Territory discovery .
She was Elizabeth Jane Cochran Seaman (1864-1922), who wrote under the pen name Nellie Bly. ,
Emulating the fictional character Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, she actually went around the world in 72 days, the subject of a book in 1890.
She also owned Iron Clad Industries which turned out Nellie Bly Oil Drums ,according to the American Oil and Gas Historical Society .
At the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in New York she was promoted as the only woman in the world who managed industries of such magnitude .
The drums contained 55 gallons and were reinforced in the same way as the rusted one at the top of this post , photographed during the weekend . There is speculation that the steel drum could have been from HMAS Moresby which surveyed the area in the l930s.
One of 15 children sired by MIchael Cochran , a self made mill owner, merchant and JP, who went broke, she attracted the attention of the editor of the Pittsburg Dispatch by a letter she wrote , signed An Orphan Girl, responding to a column headed What Girls Are Good For , which stated they were just to get married , have children , do domestic work .
Her letter was so well written , the editor asked, through the paper, for the Orphan Girl to make contact . When she came forward, he was so impressed by her that he gave her a job, with the pen name Nellie Bly , inspired by the character in the popular song "Nelly Bly" by Stephen Foster.
The wrong Nelly
The editor, however , by error called her Nellie , which remained. Early in her writing career she covered the topic of divorce and the effect on women.
Using early investigative reporting ,she got inside a mental asylum and wrote Ten Days in a Mad House in 1887.
.She married Robert Seaman ,the millionaire owner of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company , which employed 1500 . He was 73 and she 31.
When her husband died , she took over running the business ,one of its products the Nellie Bly oil drum- churned out at the rate of 1000 a day for the oil industry . It also made kitchen ware .
She designed a milk can and a garbage stacker, taking out patents . Due to shysters in the company who took advantage of her lack of knowledge about finance , plus legal battles, the business eventually closed down.
As a result , well known in America , she went back to reporting ,which included covering the 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession for the New York Evening Journal.
Voting rights for women
Her article was headed Suffragists Are Men's Superiors in which she rightly predicted it would be 1920 before women in the US would get the right to vote. She covered WWl and was arrested as a British spy .
Following her death from pneumonia, she was inducted into the National Women of Fame and was one of four journalists honoured by a postage stamp in the Women in Journalism set in 2002.
Over the years she inspired film and television shows, plays .The New York Press Club has an annual Nellie Bly Cub Reporter Award .
UPCOMING : Another unusual find and birdlife at Cape Hotham .
