A jerrycan or jerrican or jerry can or gerry can is a robust fuel container made from pressed steel. It was originally designed to hold 20 litres of fuel.
The US version of the jerrycan is covered by military specification MIL-C-1283 and has been produced since the early 1940s by a number of US manufacturers, according to a current manufacturer, Blitz. The National Stock Number is 7240-00-222-3088 but it is considered obsolete, having been replaced with plastic versions.
Uses
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).
Generally their use is denoted by the coloring, and occasionally, imprinted labeling on the container itself. This is to prevent the mixture of different fuels, as well as preventing water containers from being contaminated with fuel. Typically, the following NATO color coding is used:Regulations
Current US regulations
As of January 1, 2009 all portable fuel containers are required to conform to two new regulations:
1 - They must meet new federal Mobile Source Air Toxic regulations, based on the California Air Resources Board’s regulations.
2 - They must meet the requirements of the Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act.
These new regulations do not apply to OSHA-approved metal safety containers, but rather to the common red plastic, portable gas cans. The regulations apply only to newly manufactured gas cans, and there is no requirement on the part of users to discard their existing cans or to upgrade, although the EPA provides informational resources for implementing community Gas Can Exchange Programs.
History
The history of the Jerrycan is notable because it was reverse engineered during World War II. The name of the jerrycan reveals its German origins (Jerry being a disparaging wartime name for Germany and Germans).
German invention
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.
American lack of interest
In 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 German 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 strengthened the can while allowing the contents to expand, as did an air pocket under the handles when the can was filled correctly. 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 (which was omitted in some copies). 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 "Jerries" (Germans) — hence "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.
References
- Desmond Young, historian.
- ^ http://www.tpub.com/content/fuelpumps/TM-10-7200-200-13/TM-10-7200-200-130013.htm
- ^ http://www.blitzusa.com/history.htm
- ^ http://www.nospill.com/TurfMag/Article2009/Can_Your_Can_Do_This.pdf
- ^ http://www.epa.gov/OMS/regs/toxics/420f06021.htm#gascan
- ^ http://www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=210328
- ^ http://www.epa.gov/air/community/details/gascan.html
- ^ definition and etymology of "jerrycan"
- ^ a b Richard M. Daniel (1987). "The Little Can That Could". Invention & Technology Magazine (AmericanHeritage.com) 3 (2) . http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1987/2/1987_2_62.shtml .
External links
World War II era German Jerrycan- More info on Jerrycan history, usage & markings
- 20L plastic Jerry Cans currently used by U.S. and CDN Forces
- Description on Jerry Can Types
- Pro Quip International The Modern Metal Jerry Can as used by most defense forces throughout the world today
- (German) More about Jerrycan and "Wehrmachtskanister"
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