The E. W. Bliss Company is a manufacturer of

machine tools A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...

founded by

Eliphalet Williams Bliss Eliphalet Williams Bliss (April 12, 1836 – July 21, 1903) was an American manufacturer and inventor who established the E. W. Bliss Company of Brooklyn, New York. His company supplied the US Navy with Whitehead and Bliss-Leavitt torpedoes, ...

. The company was based in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, beh ...

and is now based in

Hastings, Michigan Hastings is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, the county seat of Barry County as well as the county's only city. The population was 7,350 at the 2010 census. The city borders Hastings Charter Township on the north, east, and south, and ...

as BCN Technical Services. BCN is owned by

Schuler Group Schuler AG is a German company headquartered in Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg which operates in the field of forming technology and is the world's largest manufacturer of presses. The presses are used to create car body sheets and othe ...

History

In 1857, Bliss formed a partnership with John Mays. Under the name of Mays & Bliss, they engaged in the

machine press A forming press, commonly shortened to press, is a machine tool that changes the shape of a work-piece by the application of pressure. The operator of a forming press is known as a press-tool setter, often shortened to tool-setter. Presses ...

and die business. In 1871, Mays sold his share of the business to Bliss' cousin, J. H. Williams. Bliss later bought Williams' interest and conducted the business by himself. In 1885, Eliphalet Williams Bliss, Anna M. Bliss, and William A. Porter, Frank M. Leavitt and Charles L. Hart incorporated the business with a capital of $100,000.00 divided into 4,000 shares of $25.00 each. In 1890, the company was incorporated with a capital of $1,250,000, which was afterwards increased to $2,000,000. The company increased its holdings by buying out the business of the Stiles & Parker Press Company and the U. S. Projectile Company. EW Bliss Company Torpedo Works ca 1910-1915

EW Bliss Company Torpedo Works ca 1910-1915

E.W. Bliss at one time was owned by American corporation Gulf + Western before it was consolidated into Bliss Clearing Niagara.

In December 1947, after 90 years, the Brooklyn plant was closed. Manufacturing facilities were then moved to

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from port ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes and ...

and

Salem, Ohio Salem is the largest city in Columbiana County, Ohio, with a small district in southern Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 11,915. It is the principal city of the Salem micropolitan area in Northeast Ohio. It is 18 ...

. Bliss purchased Consolidated Press Company of

. The Hastings, Michigan plant is the last remaining company facility, now called BCN Technical Services. In 1906, E.W. Bliss Company created the Bliss Automobile. In the 1960's EW Bliss owned an engineering development facility in Swathmore PA. The products included design of a continuous casting machine for Phoenix Steel, worked on development of automated airport landing system and aircraft arresting gear for commercial and military airframes (a pendant and net systems). The company maintained a test facility at the Woodbine NJ airfield where they installed the largest steam launch catapult of its time . In the 1970's the company change its name to Gulf and Western when EW Bliss was purchased.

Products

The company produced a line of special presses adapted for sheet metal work, power stamping machines, automobile parts,

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es, shrapnel and

armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many war ...

projectiles. Notable among these products were the

Whitehead torpedo The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed. It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead from a rough design conceived by Giovanni Luppis of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Fiume. It was driven by a t ...

, the

Bliss-Leavitt torpedo The Bliss-Leavitt torpedo was a torpedo designed by Frank McDowell Leavitt and manufactured by the E. W. Bliss Company of Brooklyn, New York. It was put into service by the United States Navy in 1904 and variants of the design would remain in i ...

and the Bliss automobile. Bliss obtained defense contracts for the manufacture of

es, used by the US Navy, and munitions during the

Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...

, World War I and World War II. Bliss machines were often huge and very heavy, powered by

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. ...

and were sold or used by the company itself to manufacture pressed metal products. These machine tools sported names such as "Automatic Muck Bar Shear", "Gang-Slitting Machine", "Double Seamer for Flat Bottoms Machine", "Double Crank Press", "Double Eccentric Press, Geared", "Reducing Press" and "Power Press No 18 on Short Legs".

References

{{Authority control 1885 establishments in New York (state) Defense companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in Michigan Manufacturing companies based in New York (state) Manufacturing companies established in 1885