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Nelly Bly, Elephants and Flying the Hump
Earlier today I packaged my latest book for delivery to my editor: The Hump 1942–45: America’s first massive military airlift. One of the photos I will use in it is this one:
Source: https://www.calcalist.co.il/calcalistech/article/syxh8yaj5#google_vignette
Yup. That’s an elephant loading a 55-gallon fuel barrel into a C-46. Gasoline, especially 100-octane aviation fuel, was one of the major cargoes taken from India to China during World War II. The first cargo carried was 100 octane to refuel the Doolittle Raiders when they landed in China. (It didn’t work out and the gasoline was used for other aircraft.)
As I was writing the caption I wondered if the barrel was empty or full. I thought it had to be full, because why load an empty fuel barrel onto a transport in India? I could see moving empty fuel barrels from China to India, but not from India to China.
That raised another question: could an elephant lift a full barrel of fuel with its trunk?
The first thing I needed to know was how much an elephant can lift with its trunk. I did some web searching and came across several sites that gave the answer: 660 to 700 pounds. More accurately, 6% of its body weight.
How much does that standard barrel weigh when full? Regular gasoline weighs about 6 pounds per gallon. 100 octane weighs a bit more – about 6.25 pounds per gallon. (I had dug out the fuel weights earlier while writing the book.) I did not remember how much a standard steel fuel drum carries or what it weighs. So I did some more web searches.
Turns out the standard fuel barrel holds 55 gallons and weighs about 40 pounds empty. (It varies between 38 to 42 pounds.) That is what the AI result yielded on my search. I mistrust AI, so I went to manufacturer and trade industry sites to confirm the weight. This time the AI was right. Which means a full steel barrel weighs around 400 pounds.
Four hundred pounds is well within the comfort limit of an adult elephant. So they were loading aircraft with full drums of avgas on the India end of the China airlift.
Where does Nelly Bly fit into this story? She is best known as an investigative reporter and her famous 1889 round-the-world trip—done as a newspaper promotion. She steamed past India without visiting during her 72-day trip, stopping at Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka) instead.
Nelly Bly. Source: Wikimedia Commons
I came across her name when researching oil barrels. Turns out, in 1895 she married a manufacturing millionaire. When he died in 1904, she took over the company, Iron Clad Manufacturing Co., which manufactured steel containers. Shortly afterward, the company released a new product: the first-ever 55-gallon liquids barrel. It quickly became the industry standard. She did not invent it (as some have claimed) but one of her employees did.
Her real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran — Elizabeth Cochran Seaman after marriage. Nelly Bly was a pen name.
These types of discoveries are why I find writing so fun. When I started writing this book, I never dreamed that in the process I would discover a connection between an elephant carrying fuel drums and a 19th-century investigative reporter. Yet there it was. It was one of dozens of such things that popped up that never appear in the book. Outtakes, so to speak.
Published in General
I ran across her after learning I had Bly ancestors (or maybe a little before that) and then learned that wasn’t her name anyway.
I love running across things like that.
I have a friend, Dave Allen, who was in the Doolittle Rangers. He was a radio man for them. I went to one of their annual reunions with him and his family a few years back, and met many of the remaining survivors. I recall one was a tiny Filipino, who was 1/2 of a .50 cal machine gun team. The machine gun and ammo that he had to carry around weighed more then he did. Amazing fortitude, under terrible conditions. These men were iconic. And every one, a gentleman, and of good cheer.
Dave married a Sears Roebuck catalog model!
Ah, China-Burma-India, one of the most interesting theaters in WWII. While we wait for Seawriter’s history of The Hump, I recommend Lost in Tibet by Starks and Murcutt. It’s the amazing story of one military cargo flight from Kunming to India which got blown off course and ran out of gas over Tibet. The book tells the adventures of the five Americans who bailed out and became some of the first foreigners to visit Lhasa.
Unloading?
An empty oil drum is 40 pounds. It could be unloaded by a person.
I recently read a three volume series by John McManus about the U.S. Army’s role in the Pacific during World War II. Part of the reason is he felt that the Army soldier got too little credit in comparison to the Marines. His coverage included China and Alaska.
He covers the battles, but he also covers logistics. In fact, the Marines had no real logistics organization and had to depend on the U.S. Army and Navy for supplies whenever they deployed.
Of course, our presence in what became the China theater of operations preceded World War II, and we did develop a logistics supply chain using air power during that war. There’s coverage of both the U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers and the Navy Seabees, who would build airstrips on those islands, often under fire. I’m not sure whether the construction battalions were under fire when they built airstrips in China, but it’s worth noting that our logistics arm didn’t just include pilots and their aircraft. Since we didn’t have as many ground troops there as we did in Pacific proper, with our island hopping campaign, we supported Chiang Kai-Shek mostly with logistical air power, though it wasn’t enough to stop Mao Zedong from ultimately taking China over a few years after the war ended.
I know the main point of the post is the connections that appear when we research different things, but I often like seeing examples like the anecdote that started the research of an elephant performing a task many of us might have expected to see a mechanical piece of equipment perform.
Even today an animal may be the most effective way to perform a task, and I enjoy reading about those.
I understand that elephants are extremely useful for lifting and carrying things in some parts of the world. They can traverse terrain and reach into areas that challenges mechanical equipment. I gather they can be quite delicate even when picking up heavy objects.
Here in the United States a nephew of a friend of mine is a U.S. Border Patrol agent on horseback. He and his horse can get into terrain that is impassible for a truck or even an “all terrain” vehicle. Plus his elevated position up on the horse gives him visibility he can’t get from a motorized vehicle.
Another big example of animal usage during WWII was the Germans. They used horses to move their various artillery pieces at the beginning of the war.
Also, near the end. As the USAAF and the RAF bombed their various sources of fuel, they brought back horses to move their artillery pieces again.
War horses are monumentalized at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Also war dogs and carrier pigeons!
We’re getting into Dickin Medal territory.