Wow, seems like a lot of little design choices went into this can.
I love how good UX crops up everywhere.
Wow, seems like a lot of little design choices went into this can.
I love how good UX crops up everywhere.
Just pour from the opposite side, e.g. https://youtu.be/LA7IbFzCNC4?t=51
From my perspective there's three options:
a) get an old, plastic can with a vent from the before times
b) buy an expensive NATO metal can, and the flexible spout 'for amusement purposes only'
c) lobby your government to allow gas cans that don't cause actual spills everytime in the pursuit of avoiding fume leakage or whatever.
https://hunsakerusa.com/collections/5-gallon-quikfill-jugs
now, if you illegally modify one by adding a legit breather tube... you can dump 5g in ~10 sec or less. :)
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Scepter-USA-5-Gallon-Plastic-Gasoli...
This works great for filling my tractor, though I have the diesel variant
wavianusa.com
It is very sturdy feeling. Literally got last week so tbd on long term use I'm optimistic.
Though I had a problem trying to fill the two up at gas station. I'm going to try again I think it was just the pump or card was acting up since it also wouldn't flow into my car.
Me too. Empathetically. These deep dives feed my soul.
The Donald Norman books, obviously. I've read similar accounts about forks (the utensil), pencils, shipping containers, etc.
One organizational detail that pops out is the German government sponsored a design competition and then seriously reviewed everything.
Another data point in favor of broadly applying X-Prize like strategy to encourage innovation.
DARPA and a few others are (sometimes) smart this way. The book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity uses economic logic (based on net present value, aka NPV) to also make the argument in favor.
My takeaway here is that they should have iterated until they had a "great, but not perfect" design. That way, when the design inevitably gets aped... there's still room for the opposing side to introduce their own improvements which you can steal right back.
In any case... I do think that, ultimately, the Jerrycan was more useful to the allied forces. The copycat designs were instrumental in the invasion of Europe, which pushed supply logistics far harder than the blitz ever did.
So, the Blitz didn't rely on Jerrycans at all, planes leave from and, if they aren't destroyed, return to your airbases, which have plenty of fuel and refuelling apparatus in place.