55-Gallon Salesman

Last spring, the world's first 55-gallon steel drum to be lithographed in full color flashed down the line at Rheem Manufacturing Company's New Orleans plant. Rheem had begun in earnest to cash in on its 1949 investment of over a million dollars to develop color lithography and precision inner linings for 55-gallon steel shipping containers. The exclusive Rheemcote process was realizing its aim: to make colorful steel salesmen out of the once drab steel drum.

Reception of the process when it was unveiled last May was overwhelming. Brand-conscious manufacturers envisioned uniformity in package decoration from smallest to largest containers. Makers of corrosive, hard-to-contain products eagerly eyed anti-corrosive and sanitary Rheemcote interior linings; saw that the tough, cheap steel drum could replace less durable and often costlier special packages.

Early this year, newly installed Rheemcote equipment will roll out the barrel coast to coast, from all of Rheem's seven U. S. container plants. Presses, roller coaters and oven equipment were ordered in sizes never before built. Handling and fabricating machinery was specially designed to form lithographed, lined steel sheets into drums, without marring either surface.

This development, and the new merchandising opportunities it created, marked a fitting climax to Rheem's first quarter century. In that span, the firm licked a depression, spread across the nation and the world, built a thriving home appliance business in automatic water heaters and forced-air heating systems; opened new sales horizons for steel shipping containers.

With products and facilities that are fundamental to home and industry, in peace or war, Rheem's stability and future are welded to the growth of the American economy.

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