U.S. GAS JERRYCAN MANUFACTURERS LIST (41-45)

Manufacturers, production numbers, configurations, etc.
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gpw_42
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Arvin Noblitt-Sparks

Post by gpw_42 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 5:30 am

$16.2M Total contracts
$439k Fuel containers to the Air Corps
$431k Water containers to the QM
$1.4M Gas drums to the ORD (what SIZE drums?)
$955k Steel drums to the QM
$472k Fuel containers to the Air Corps
$2.4M Gasoline drums to the QM (2 contracts, I'm combining; what SIZE drums?)
$372k Steel drums to the QM

These contracts ran from March 42 to November 44.

Other than the Air Corps fuel containers (which may well not be Jerry cans), it's hard to guess what mix of these drums were actually Jerry cans.
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Arvin-Noblitt Sparks Header .jpg
Arvin Noblitt Sparks .jpg
Arvin Noblitt Sparks 3.jpg


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Re: U.S. GAS JERRYCAN MANUFACTURERS LIST (41-45)

Post by gpw_42 » Fri Oct 22, 2021 5:41 am

Sorry these first five are out of alphabetic order - I first went for Cavalier due to brand recognition.

Let me know if this is an interesting and/or useful series of posts. I can do some other manufacturers in the future.

I found that BOYCO (Boyle Manufacturing Co Los Angeles-Alameda California) is not listed in MWSC Book 1. There is no Boyle Manufacturing in any city; the other Boyle ___ companies listed were for clearly unrelated products, such as lighter fluid or cranes. However, BOYCO clearly made Jerry cans, so that will take some more investigation to identify the name of BOYCO. OR, the Leger website lists the company name correctly, and they had less than $50k in contracts. They show cans observed with MFG dates in 42, 43 and 44, so it doesn't make sense to be less than $50k in contracts.

The Leger website is a tremendous resource, so I do NOT mean to impugn them. Quite the contrary, their information is useful! I just found information which was different from what they're working with. In the case of BOYCO, there's definitely more research to be done.

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Re: U.S. GAS JERRYCAN MANUFACTURERS LIST (41-45)

Post by gerrykan » Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:16 pm

Thank you very much for taking time to gather this information and post it.

One thing that aroused my curiosity is the the Aluminum Cans listed at the bottom of the CONCO page.

If I understand correctly, this contract was from May 1945 thru April 1946.
Could this possibly be for the undated CONCO/U.S.M.C. aluminum water cans with the large camlock lid and pour spout?

The earliest dated photos I have seen are LIFE photos from 1959.
Being made at such a late date they may have gone into reserve stock for later use, as the cans likely did not have time to make into the war.

Ignore the paint markings and you can see it has U.S.M.C. embossed in the lower side.

Image

Bottom.

Image

This can does not have the correct lid, but you can see the molded pour spout that most water cans did not have.

Image

Just a possibility, as the contract description is rather vague.
Roy

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Re: U.S. GAS JERRYCAN MANUFACTURERS LIST (41-45)

Post by gpw_42 » Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:12 am

gerrykan wrote:
Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:16 pm
Thank you very much for taking time to gather this information and post it.

One thing that aroused my curiosity is the the Aluminum Cans listed at the bottom of the CONCO page.

If I understand correctly, this contract was from May 1945 thru April 1946.
Could this possibly be for the undated CONCO/U.S.M.C. aluminum water cans with the large camlock lid and pour spout?

The earliest dated photos I have seen are LIFE photos from 1959.
Being made at such a late date they may have gone into reserve stock for later use, as the cans likely did not have time to make into the war.

...

Just a possibility, as the contract description is rather vague.
Gerrykan, you understand the timeline of that specific contract correctly, May 45 - Apr 46. Frustratingly, the vague contract descriptions throughout the document are a real hindrance to detailed research. BUT I'd rather have these documents, even with their shortcomings, than not have them. With that said, is it possible that contract created the CONCO/USMC aluminum water cans? Sure. Is it likely? I can't offer an informed opinion on that, but it sounds believable.

I don't know of a way to access/search WW2 vintage contracts for their details about what was produced. With the contract numbers, I'd LOVE to go back and learn how many cans of a certain size/capacity were produced by the different manufacturers, and what was the per can price. Perhaps there's a way through the National Archives, but I don't know how to get into there. Last I knew, they were all closed due to COVID, but that may well have changed.

Today, I learned how to access volume 4 of the Major War Supply Contracts, so I'll skip ahead (alphabetically) to cover Rheem and Wheeling marked cans.

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Rheem Manufacturing Co.

Post by gpw_42 » Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:55 am

$156.7M Total contracts
$0 Gas drums to the ORD
$95k Fuel containers to the Air Corps
$1.8M Gasoline drums to the QM (what SIZE drums?)
$13.9M Steel drums to the QM
$84k Steel drums to USMC (Los Angeles plant)
$4.6M Steel drums to various Navy bureaus
*Note that I did not include "Iron Drums" to the Air Corps

These contracts ran from Sept. 1940 to Sept. 1946.

Rheem MFG had 21 plants, spread from Rhode Island to CA. Some plants (Bayonne, NJ, Birmingham, AL, etc) did not make anything related to cans or drums, others (Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Richmond, CA)did multi-million dollars in can/drum contracts.

Other than the Air Corps fuel containers (which may well not be Jerry cans), it's hard to guess what mix of these drums were actually Jerry cans.

There are 2+ more pages of Rheem contract data which I did not convert into .pdfs to include here. Rheem covers page 2643 to page 2647 in MWSC vol. 4.
Rheem MFG pg 1.jpg
Rheem MFG pg 2.jpg
Rheem MFG pg 3.jpg.png

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Wheeling Steel Corporation

Post by gpw_42 » Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:15 am

$124.7M Total contracts
$1.7M Fuel containers to the Air Corps
$1.4M Gasoline containers to the QM
$198k Containers to the QM (what kind of containers?)
$4.1M Steel drums to the QM
$740k Gasoline drums to the QM (what SIZE drums?)
$54k Cans to the QM
$143k Steel drums to the ORD (what SIZE drums?)
$56k Steel drums to the EN (what SIZE drums?)
$6.0M Steel drums to various Navy bureaus

These contracts ran from Jan. 1940 to 1946. Wheeling Steel had a total of 9 plants with over $124.7M in total contracts, of which $14.3M were related to either gasoline cans or steel drums.

It's hard to guess what mix of these drums were actually Jerry cans.
Wheeling Steel Corp Wheeling, WV pg 1.png
Wheeling Steel Corp Wheeling, WV pg 2.jpg
Wheeling Steel Corp Portsmouth OH pg 1.jpg
Wheeling Steel Martins Ferry OH pg 1.jpg
Wheeling Steel Martins Ferry OH pg 2.jpg


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