Today’s guest post is by Fraser Parlane.

Many of you most likely deal with gas cylinders. Many of these cylinders have a small window, (or four squares) stamped next to the service dates (these are month, then year). As you can see, this particular bottle dates back to 1945. Of course, this is during WWII era. During the war, Nazi Germany stamped swastikas on their gas cylinders. You can still see that these cylinders came from german companies.

Allied forces “captured” substantial German assets after VE day and shipped them back to the US in mass quantities. As such, there are very many swastika cylinders still in use here. Most are not recognized because the swastika was covered with a box stamp that makes it look like four small boxes.

Update: Someone found a cylinder with a unaligned stamp on it.

