Prototype drums usually came in a variety of colors – black, red, yellow, green. Is there some sort of standard as to what types of materials are stored in the different color drums?
IMHO, use drums everywhere. They were and are used for any liquid product used by an industry that doesn’t use enough at one time to get it in a tanker, or doesn’t have the pumps and storage tanks to take advantage of the price breaks available for bulk users. This goes for today as well as yesteryear. In my experience, besides petroleum products and related solvents, 55 gallon drums are used for paint (latex, oil, epoxy, and whatever), caustics (NaOH is used by diaries, breweries, and other food type processing plants for cleaning), and Phosphoric acid (used in soda pop, hub cap cleaner, and so many other things. . . . . ). If you really wanted to be prototypical for the modern era, you could have a bunch of 55 gallon drums, with figures standing around them, some in TYVEK suits, with a hazmat official arguing with the plant manager. —— Colors were usually indicative of the manufacturer. Blue was Standard Oil, Yellow for Shell, Green was Quaker State. I’d have to think a while on
