History Article about the classic Jerry-can fuel container

I thought it was surprisingly interesting: http://www.jerrycan.com/the-little-can-that-could/

 

Well that's pretty interesting. I have always liked them because they work well but I never had any idea that they were originally designed by the Gerries.

 

If you see something good and can't improve it, use what you see. Real simple process when at war improvise when needed.

 

Great article! I have one WWII German can and a couple of British, which were essentially direct copies.
Our main WWII ones were fabricated differently, base-rolled center-top rather than halves, but we also made some like the German ones during the war...the ones I have like that are early War USMC. I can't remember which way they were fabricated, but these used the German flip lid rather than the American screw-in cap. As far as I know, these are rare and all other WWII USA jerries used the American closure that lasted for decades after the war.
I also have an adapter, German to USA spout. The original US spouts are works of art, very durable, bronze contact, screw in final filter at the tip.
Both Old World and US cans in good condition are very tight...I can remember parking my black '48 in the sun in Mississippi in August, And seeing my cans bulge like 3" out in the middle, with no smell of gas at all.

 

There's an adapter
Could be for the Marines, after they started using the regular cans but still had old ones, or maybe it was for the European theater, where we capture huge numbers of German cans and also worked with the British...

 

Majority of us old dirt track guys hauled our alcohol around w/ these up into the late 80's when the plastic jugs came on market. Midget deal we hauled 4, sprint car deal 8. Kept a couple all these years for vintage midget and vintage trailer.

 

Thanks for sharing -- very cool indeed.

 

Very interesting. I was at a local surplus joint this past weekend, they're still stacked all over the place.

 

Very Cool. Had one in the Shop that I bought many years ago and thought I have been moving it from one spot to the other for over 20 years. Looks to be and old WWII can.
Nice to have the details.

 

If you look underneath them, they should have a date.
Mine is 1945.

 

Please forgive my French, but in military enviroments those spouts are refered to as " Donkey ****s". I still remember the first time I was sent to find one. ha-ha

 

Flip top was for water. The screw in top was for fuel.

 

LOL we used to say, "Improvise, adapt and overcome." It works real well.

 

Ironically, in Sweden the jerrycan is known as jeepdunk, which translates to jeep can.