Trash Cans

J. Crosby

In 1912, Peter M. Wege, Sr. and Walter Idema found out that when you bend steel it becomes stronger than when you weld it together. They used this concept to help the work environment. After many fires in offices in the 1910's they came up with the idea to have steel used to make trashcans. The concept of bending steel for strength continued when building files and desks during the 1910's and into today.

Still today, Steelcase Inc. has used that knowledge to bend their steel to become the desk and other products that go into the work environment. The strength of the files, desk and chairs has held up during such things as fires and even on the ships of WWII.