Date:         Fri, 24 Sep 2004 09:55:54 -0500
Reply-To:     Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Felder <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
Subject:      Re: pretend it's already Friday (was RE: Spare-tire Pan Bolt Spec
In-Reply-To:  <4154307F.1040906@charter.net>
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>> jerry-rigged - doesn't relate to anything, I think.  Jerry cans?  I
>> don't
>> know what they are anyway.
>>
According to my dad who was in europe in WW2, the American soldiers
were fond of collecting the gasoline cans the germans left behind,
referring to them as jerry cans. The british referred to the germans as
jerries and the name took with the US troops. As far as I know, in the
US military, 5 gallon steel gas cans are still called jerry cans, at
least they were when I was in. Specifically, it's the flat style of can
that straps to a truck with a web strap, has a handle in the top and
and a chained-on cap that can be replaced with a flexible steel nozzle.

I don't know about WW1 where the so-called perjorative jerry-rigging
was coined to describe cobbled-together equipment, but the Americans in
WW2 were in awe of the german equipment they saw as well as of the
german soldiers themselves. So I believe the gerry-rigged is probably
an english land-lubber's corruption of the well-known nautical
jury-rigging, meaning temporary rigging.

Jim