Histarch. . .

A question about 55 gallon drums, those ubiquitous markers of former
military presence in Alaska (usually found half buried in the muskeg
with the bottoms rusted out. . .)

On a recent survey at a WWII era airfield, we encountered a stack of
drums, and I'm trying to determine an age for them.  My suspicion is
that they date to the WWII time frame, but I've never really found any
good information of the dating of oil drums.  These particular drums are
of the form common today, with the cylinder sides molded from a single
sheet of steel and the rolling rings raised out from the main body.
However, there are also a series of smaller, barely-visible rings on
either end of the cylinder, between each rolling ring and its respective
end.

Does anyone know if these smaller rings can be used to determine a time
frame for these drums?  Any references out there that I can cite?

Thanks, folks!


Kris Farmen
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
Fairbanks, Alaska