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A
jerrycan or
jerrican or jerry can is a robust fuel container made from pressed steel.
It was designed to hold 20 litres of fuel.
The jerrycan was invented by the Germans during a secret project ordered by
Hitler. The Germans called it the Wehrmachtskanister.
The Germans had thousands of jerrycans stockpiled by 1939 in anticipation of
war.
Today similar designs are used for fuel and water containers, some of
which are also produced in plastic. The designs usually emulate the
original steel design and are still known as jerrycans, although they have
also been called "jerryjugs" (or "jerry jugs", just as
jerrycan is sometimes spelled
as two words as well). |
History
The history of the
Jerrycan is notable
because it was reverse engineered during World War II. Jeri as it was 1st
spelt was an acronym for J.E.R.I or
Journey Extension Refillable Item. Also commonly called a Journey Can.
American lack of interest
In the summer of 1939, an American engineer named Paul
Pleiss had built a vehicle to journey to India with his German
colleague. After building the car, they realized they didn't have any storage
for emergency water. The engineer had access to the stockpile of Jerrycans at
Tempelhof Airport and just managed to take three. They drove across 11
national borders without incident until Field Marshal Goering sent a plane to
take the engineer home. The German engineer compounded his treason by giving
Pleiss complete specifications for the manufacture of the can. Pleiss
continued
on to Calcutta, put his car in storage, and flew back to Philadelphia.
Pleiss told American military officials about the can, but they ignored him.
Without a sample, he realized he couldn't get anywhere. He eventually got the
car shipped to New York by a roundabout method, and sent a can to Washington.
The War Department decided instead to use the WWI ten-gallon can with two
screw
closures, which required both a wrench and funnel for pouring.
The one American jerrycan was sent to Camp Holabird, Maryland, where it was
redesigned. It only retained the
handles, size and shape. The weld was replaced with rolled seams, the lining
was removed and it now required a wrench and a funnel.
The original design proved far superior and these fuel containers were
subsequently used in all theatres of war around the world.
British necessity
At the beginning of the Second World War, the British Army
were equipped with simple rectangular fuel containers: a 2
Imperial gallon (9 litres) container made of pressed steel and a 4 gallon
(18 litres) container made from tin plate. While the 9 litre - 2 gallon
containers were relatively strong, they were expensive to produce. The 18
litre
- 4 gallon containers, which were mainly manufactured in the
third world, were cheap and plentiful but they were not very robust.
Consequently they were colloquially known as flimsies.
While adequate for transportation by road in Europe, the flimsies proved to be
extremely unsatisfactory during the
North African Campaign and severely hampered the operation of the British 8th
Army. The transportation of fuel over rough terrain often
resulted in much of the fuel being lost as the containers were easily
punctured.
The resultant leakages also made the transportation vehicles liable to fuel
fires.
When the British Army first saw the German fuel cans during the invasion of
Norway in 1940,
the British immediately saw the advantages of the superior design. The
containers had three handles on them, which allowed easy handling by one or
two
people, or to be moved bucket brigade-style; the sides of the can were marked
with cross-like
indentations that allowed the contents of the can to expand; when filled, the
cans retained an air pocket so that they would float on water; and rather than
a
screw cap, the containers used a cam lever release mechanism with a short
spout secured with a
snap closure and an air-pipe to the air pocket which enabled
smooth pouring. The interior was also lined with an impervious plastic, first
developed for steel beer barrels that would allow the can to be used for
either
water or gasoline. The can was welded, and had a gasket for a leak-proof
mouth.
The British used cans captured from the "gerries" (Germans) — hence
"gerrycans" or "jerrycans" — in preference to their own
containers as much as possible. Later in 1940 Pleiss was in London, and
British officers asked him about the design and manufacture of the jerrycan.
Pleiss ordered the second of his three
jerrycans flown to
London.
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