Behind a small equipment change, carrying the rise of a huge country. The evolution of each generation of military kettles has revealed the difficult course of the Chinese military for decades.
The founding of New China marked a development from scratch, and so did the soldiers' kettles, which witnessed decades of change.
Initial style
With the founding of the People's Republic of China, the army underwent reorganization, and the logistics support was also improved.
In the logistics support, the role of the military kettle is crucial. As the saying goes, "desperation" can last for seven days, but if you don't drink water for three days, your life will be in danger.
The military kettle is directly related to the drinking water of the soldiers.
However, at the beginning of the founding of New China, the national foundation was weak and logistics was not perfect, so most of the military kettles were inherited from the logistics factories of the Kuomintang period.
These kettles were later called Type 50 military kettles because they were copied from the Japanese kettles and were therefore very similar in appearance to the latter.
The advantage of this kettle is that there are ready-made factories and production lines, and raw materials such as aluminum and wood are cheap, so the overall production cost is low, and the production process is not complicated, which is conducive to large-scale production.
At that particular time, the Type 50 military kettle was definitely the best choice. Remember, before the founding of New China, many Chinese army soldiers did not even own a military kettle.
While the Type 50 kettle may fall short in terms of quality and design, it at least ensures that the soldiers of the Chinese army have water to drink.
However, it also has some shortcomings, such as the wooden plug is easy to deform after a long time of use, and it can not effectively seal the inside of the kettle, resulting in accidental spraying of water when soldiers perform tasks in complex terrain, making clothes wet and affecting soldiers' health.
Continuous improvement
In response to some problems with the Type 50 military kettle, China has made improvements on the next generation of military kettles, mainly changing the wooden plug to a threaded cap to improve sealing.
However, due to the limitations of the industrial level at that time, this threaded cap is usually made of phenolic plastic, which will produce odor after prolonged use.
The subsequent launch of the Type 78 military kettle uses chemically stable aluminum as the raw material of the pot body, which will not release harmful substances even if affected by hot water.
In addition, the Type 78 kettle is also wrapped in a metal shell to ensure that it is not easy to deform during intense activities of soldiers.
The interior space has also been optimized, with the capacity increased by about 50 ml compared to the Type 50, and the metal cup can hold 780 ml of water.
However, the type 78 kettle also has some problems, such as the kettle lid has a large rubber odor, which needs to be used several times to eliminate.
In addition, the type 78 kettle does not have a belt fixing button, which is easy to shake in outdoor activities and will cause inconvenience once it falls off.
Modern kettle
The Type 10 military kettle used by the modern Chinese army fully demonstrates the charm of "Made in China".
In terms of appearance, the Type 10 military kettle has a high appearance level, round and lovely shape, and the Chinese army camouflage uniforms are very matched.
The best feature of this kettle is that it is rugged and can even be used as a hammer when needed.
Of course, the most important function of the kettle is its drinking value.
The inside of the Type 10 military kettle can also be added according to the needs of soldiers, which is used to filter harmful substances in outdoor water sources to ensure that the water quality of soldiers is higher.
In addition, the kettle also has heat dissipation and insulation functions, which can quickly cool the hot water in the summer, and can be added to the thermal insulation film in the winter to keep warm.
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