Gasmask Canister with a Surprise
This season I found several gasmask canisters. They were in conditions ranging from `rusted to bits` to `looks like it was buried last year`.
The ones that are closed and heavy with content are of course the most interesting. Usually they are having the original equipment; a gasmask, a retaining spring and a piece of cloth on the bottom of the canister. On the lid of the canister is a small compartment with spare lenses.
I have heard tales about great finds being made inside such canisters. Medals hidden in the spare lense compartment, caps-, guns-, personal items, ammo- and even treasures in the form of gold instead of the gasmask.
Naturally with such tales floating around digging up a heavy unopened box is very exciting, and opening one even more so.
One day this autumn I decided to open up two such recent finds. With the help of a hammer and a screwdriver I got the first one open without damaging the canister. It had a completely rotted gasmask inside.
On the other canister I could hear something was loose inside it, but rust had eaten its way through the lid so I had no hopes of an intact mask being in this one either.
Getting the lid off I saw leather straps. This I had never seen on a gasmask before.
Brushing off a little crud showed it was not a mask at all, but a K98 ammo pouch that had been crammed into the canister.
The leather had dried out, preserving the ammo pouch pretty good in its folded state. I checked, but it was nothing inside it.
So what had caused the rattle when shaking the gasmask box? On the bottom was a rusted lump of something.
The piece needed to be twisted around to a correct position that would allow it to come out of the metal tube.
I recognized the item as being of military origin, but needed to do some searching online before identifying it as a part of a german scissor binocular, and it was in good condition with lots of the original color, and the numbers on the turning wheels were still showing.
Not the gold treasure I had hoped it would be, but a very interesting and unusual find indeed.
The contents after some rinsing. Water and a scrub cleaned the leather.. Oxalic acid was used to clean this one. Nice original color. Some places the rust had been more active Numbers still readable Bubble level half of it was more rusted theodolite
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