Today in 1925, US Patent 1527897 A was issued, an invention of George Eugene Mittinger, for his “Barrel or Keg.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:

My invention relates to improvements in barrels or kegs and more particularly to improvements in collapsible barrels or kegs having a novel construction whereby the barrel is held together in its assembled form and being also constructed in such a manner that the unassembled parts of the barrel will stack so that in shipment tonnage can be put in a freight car.

The object of my invention is to provide a collapsible barrel or keg made in a plurality of sections and adapted to be readily collapsed and assembled as desired.

Another object of my invention is to pro vide a barrel or keg made in a plurality of sections and adapted to be collapsed so that the sections can be readily nested or stacked, whereby a vast amount of space is saved in transportation of the empty containers and tonnage can be packed in a car or the like.