Cold War Commode
This is a steel drum issued by the Office of Civil Defense during the Cold War, probably around 1960. It was designed for water storage, although it could also be adapted for use as a commode.
On March 21, the New York Times printed an article about a cache of civil defense supplies that was recently discovered inside the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Times wrote:
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City workers were conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge last Wednesday when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, paper blankets, drugs and calorie-packed crackers -- an estimated 352,000 of them, sealed in dozens of watertight metal canisters and, it seems, still edible.
To step inside the vault -- a dank and lightless room where the walls are lined with dusty boxes -- is to be vividly reminded of the anxieties that dominated American life during the military rivalry with the Soviet Union, an era when air-raid sirens and fallout shelters were standard elements of the grade-school curriculum.
[...]
The officials would not open any of the supplies because of safety concerns over germs, but Mr. Vaccaro said that one of the canisters had broken open, and inside it, workers found the crackers intact in wax-paper wrapping.
Nearby were several dozen boxes with sealed bottles of Dextran, made by Wyeth Laboratories in Philadelphia. More mysterious were about 50 metal drums, made by United States Steel in Camden, N.J. According to the label, each was intended to hold 17.5 gallons and to be converted, if necessary, for ''reuse as a commode.'' They are now empty.
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I had to laugh, because I have three of those cannisters, which originally came from a similar Civil Defense stockpile on the campus of Yale University. Here's one of them, now doing end-table duty in our house. Click here for a detail of the text printed on the front.
The Civil Defense Museum has lots more background and several historical photos of these storage drums here.
Cold War Commode
This is a steel drum issued by the Office of Civil Defense during the Cold War, probably around 1960. It was designed for water storage, although it could also be adapted for use as a commode.
On March 21, the New York Times printed an article about a cache of civil defense supplies that was recently discovered inside the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Times wrote:
===================
City workers were conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge last Wednesday when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, paper blankets, drugs and calorie-packed crackers -- an estimated 352,000 of them, sealed in dozens of watertight metal canisters and, it seems, still edible.
To step inside the vault -- a dank and lightless room where the walls are lined with dusty boxes -- is to be vividly reminded of the anxieties that dominated American life during the military rivalry with the Soviet Union, an era when air-raid sirens and fallout shelters were standard elements of the grade-school curriculum.
[...]
The officials would not open any of the supplies because of safety concerns over germs, but Mr. Vaccaro said that one of the canisters had broken open, and inside it, workers found the crackers intact in wax-paper wrapping.
Nearby were several dozen boxes with sealed bottles of Dextran, made by Wyeth Laboratories in Philadelphia. More mysterious were about 50 metal drums, made by United States Steel in Camden, N.J. According to the label, each was intended to hold 17.5 gallons and to be converted, if necessary, for ''reuse as a commode.'' They are now empty.
===================
I had to laugh, because I have three of those cannisters, which originally came from a similar Civil Defense stockpile on the campus of Yale University. Here's one of them, now doing end-table duty in our house. Click here for a detail of the text printed on the front.
The Civil Defense Museum has lots more background and several historical photos of these storage drums here.