Sunday History Photo / Au

A 44-gallon drum in Australia is known as a 200-litre drum was used extensively during WWII,
The drums are typically made of steel with a welded top and ribbed outer wall to improve rigidity and durability. They were commonly used for transporting oils and fuels.
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The 44-gallon drum will fit handily four to a fork truck standard wooden shipping pallet, and so ease handling and shipping but during the war years they were man handled by the thousands, no fork lifts back then. They can be moved short distances by hand by tilting, then rolling along the base, which is designed especially for that purpose.
The drums helped win the Battle of Guadalcanal in the first U.S. offensive in the South Pacific. The U.S. Navy could not maintain control of the seas long enough to offload aviation fuel for U.S. aircraft ashore, so the drums were often transported to the island on fast ships like destroyers, shoved over the sides (or time permitting, lowered in cargo nets. Aviation fuel is lighter than seawater, so the drums floated, and Navy Seabees corralled the drums in small craft.
Closed-head steel barrels and drums used for shipment of chemicals and petroleum products have a standardised bunghole arrangement, with one 2-inch (50.8 mm) NPT and one 3/4-inch (19 mm) NPT threaded bunghole on opposite sides of the top head. This arrangement is echoed in many plastic drums in the same size. Various components can be mounted to the drum, such as drum pumps and bung mixers.
In the past, hazardous waste was often placed in drums of this size and stored in open fields or buried. Over time, some drums would corrode and leak. As a result, these drums have become iconic of pollution problems, even though they have numerous uses and are ubiquitous in commerce.
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The old humble drum had other uses other than for fuel too, they were fabricated into Incinirators and Latrines . the latrines were sometimes refered to as Flaming Furies due to the use of fuel to burn the contents, some systems were very elabrorate with with a small chimney fitted. They were also used as protection around Anti Aircraft Gun Emplacements.
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