MK3 STEN Photographic Profile

[bigduke6]

Anyone else notice how the rider has those jerry-cans finely balanced on his boot (thread 11).

All that and enjoying a Hamlet moment...... ( looks like a cigar between his fingers)

[Flying10uk]

No, but someone once told me, a long time ago, that a jerry can with 4 gallons of petrol in it will float on water. I've never actually put the theory to the test; has anyone else? Theoretically it should work with 4 gallons of petrol in it but possibly not the cans maximum capacity of around 4 1/2 gallons???

[Peter Laidler]

whatever fluid there was in the can would be academic because it'd be the weight of the liquid, temperature, SG of the saline or fresh water and volume of air that would dictate the degree of buoyancy. But if it was full, it'd go straight down! There is probably a basic mathematical or physics formula out there somewhere. And guess what...., someone on the forum will have it handy!

[Flying10uk]

The story goes that on D Day and following some of the Jerry cans of petrol was deliberately chucked over the side of the supply ships at anchor and allowed to make there own way to dry land. How much truth there is in this story I've no idea???

[Sentryduty]

Well, gasoline does have a specific density that is less than water, (~0.75kg/l vs ~1.0kg/l) so it will float on it's own, the old "oil floats on water". If enclosed in a Jerry Can I imagine it would resist sinking, but not float as though the Jerry can were empty of fuel and filled entirely air (~0.001kg/L).

Some amount of air in the can would improve buoyancy to offset the fuel.

That is as far as my memories of high school sciences take me on this topic, and I could have missed something. Only reason I recall this much is from troubleshooting water in fuel issues with a vehicle. Given a bottom sump in a fuel tank, water will be displaced into the pickup and be a right miserable bastard until the water is drained off, consumed by the engine, or bonded with methyl hydrate and more effectively consumed by the engine.

[Flying10uk]

I think that the 1/2 gallon of air in the jerry can is needed to provide the buoyancy for the weight of the steel can. I did have a problem with a car some years ago which I very strongly suspected was water in the petrol and to prove the point/fix the problem I had to remove all the petrol from the tank. I then tested some samples of the petrol by putting samples in a clear glass jar. The water contaminant could clearly be seen to have settled on the bottom of the jar showing that water is heavier than petrol or putting it another way petrol floats on water. Another aspect to this could be that sea water which is, as we all know, salty. Humans are said to be more buoyant in water of a high saline content and perhaps the same is also true of jerry cans petrol???

A side note to this matter, several years ago my brother got told to stop using the term "Jerry Can" as it was now considered to be politically incorrect and disrespectful to Germans. I haven't heard of anyone else being reprimanded for using this term in recent years apart from the one incident involving my brother. Perhaps not everyone realises that it was the Germans who invented it and we recognised the fact in the name we chose to give it when we copied the design. The British jerry can is a close copy of the original German version but the the WW2 U.S. version differed somewhat especially with the cap. Was/is it still known as a jerry can in the States or is it mainly the U.K. that uses the term.

[Sentryduty]

A side note to this matter, several years ago my brother got told to stop using the term "Jerry Can" as it was now considered to be politically incorrect and disrespectful to Germans

Was/is it still known as a jerry can in the States or is it mainly the U.K. that uses the term.

In Canadian Army speak they are still called Jerry Cans, despite being made of plastic and only rough facsimiles of their WW2 cousins, and the spout is still called a "horsec**k" because it's thick, flexible, and the length of a man's forearm, which is about the same as a...

[mrclark303]

In Canadian Army speak they are still called Jerry Cans, despite being made of plastic and only rough facsimiles of their WW2 cousins, and the spout is still called a "horsec**k" because it's thick, flexible, and the length of a man's forearm, which is about the same as a...

You sir made me spit my breakfast out with laughter this morning, horse's C**k, hilarious!

[henry r]

everyone I know over here calls them jerry cans.

[Sentryduty]

You sir made me spit my breakfast out with laughter this morning, horse's C**k, hilarious!

Item in question:

Old and best version:


New and less reliable version:


We never denoted them by a Mark or Series number, there was not a HC Mk1 or HC Mk1* etc.