Opening 60 Year Old Canned Water Rations

The ever-gregarious Taras Kul, aka the “Crazy Russian Hacker” (previously), set six cans of 60 year old water rations on the table in front of him and quite reverently read the imprinted directions. According to the instructions, Kul could determine if the water was fresh and safe to drink by slap-knocking the top of each can. If he received a slap-knock in return, the water was safe.

Kul opened each ration with a p-51 can opener and poured out the contents into glasses. Unfortunately, Kul was too concerned about floating dust in the water (possibly from his can opener) that he didn’t taste the water at all.

I thought my glass was dirty. Nope, that water is dirty. Look how much stuff is floating around oh maybe it just got old, but still very cool. A unique product. I’ve never seen a survival drink in pure water with a slap test like that piece of history that’s for sure very unique I like it a lot.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.