oil drumes/barrels

[nils]

hi all
i know that jerrycans are ww2
what about oil drumes / barrels are they fitting for bob?
was oil stored in diffred
im thinking about using them as objectiv markes ore just to block los
all help is welcom

[Remington]

That's a good question actually... When did oil drums come about? And did they look similar to the ones you can usually get in the shops?

[Dolmot]

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=307210

Linked from there

Standard Oil Company introduced a steel version of the common 42-gallon oil barrel in 1902. It had the traditional cask-like appearance.

During a 1904 visit to Europe, Nellie Bly saw glycerin containers made of steel. “I determined to make steel containers for the American trade,” she said. She patented her own "metal barrel" one year later.

At its peak, Iron Clad employed 1,500 and could produce 1,000 steel barrels daily, but then charges of fraud led to bitterly contested bankruptcy proceedings, beginning in 1911.

So it seems steel drums were already mass-produced in some scale before WWI, but I can't say for sure how common they were around the world, especially in more remote places. It's something that could be researched further.

[nils]

thanke you
that helped

[juergen c. olk]

you can see the drums on the caravan of vehicles used for "Dunsterforce",that went to the Baku oilfields.Model t-trucks,rolls royce tenders and such.

[Emir of Askaristan]

Cover them with a tarp.....then it doesn't matter....
 

[former user]

You can use wooden barrels anytime instead before 1900

not only are the steel drums derived from recycled wooden 42 gallon herring barrels, that is also where the blue painting comes from.

Also, many goods were traded in standard size wooden barrels around the world.
Problem is that You will probably get only the convex style of wooden barrel

[Remington]

Dolmot's reply helped my google fu and I found this picture of a patent issued to Nellie Bly in 1905. This is basically the father of today's 55 gallon barrel.

[NurgleHH]

They look like the stuff from pardulon.

[marianas_gamer]

I remember reading in "Where The Strange Trails Go Down", a 1920s book, that two things were ubiquitous through Island Southeast Asia, Standard Oil men and their oil tins.
LB

[nils]

thank you again gentlemen
its the cool thing about this forum that you can aske real obscur things
and you get an anser!
i hope ill find my GW drums they look verry nice as "old"drums

[former user]

the GW drums are too big
I'd recommend Tamiya 1/48 jerry can and oil drum set

there are some traders on ebay who offer them quite reasonably - plus You get a lot of Jerrycans in three variants

[Dolmot]

Apparently the largest factor in their use (or lack of it) wasn't really that steel drums couldn't be made. Heck, even T-Fords were mass produced by millions and they're a bit more complex than an oil drum. There just wasn't much reason to store oil or fuel in any "small" containers when pipelines, tank cars, barges and tankers became commonplace. Most transportation and distribution already took place with larger vessels. An oil drum is effectively a last-mile solution for places difficult to reach and/or small scale consumption. Only the army had a good reason to split deliveries into small, standardised units in a large scale. Others only needed a few here and there.

So, I gather that in interwar period one could easily have acquired steel drums. There wasn't a reason to prefer or use wooden barrels. The point is that small containers weren't needed that often in the first place. They would have their use in remote areas, conflict zones and final distribution. Without standardised delivery, one might pick anything that was locally available. I guess you could make up a reasonable explanation for either wood, common drums or improvised containers in the back of beyond.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2005/03/does_oil_really_come_in_barrels.html