Using old milk churn for storage of drinking water?

Hi,

I have five milk churns, perhaps 70 years old, made of some kind of zinc alloy, I think.
Could these be used for storing drinking water?

Thanks for all input!

Hi Tord;
As a child, we used large milk cans to haul drinking water from a spring to our cabin in Vermont.
An old military jeep with a trailer was used.
I remember those cans as being steel, not zinc lined as well as they had a solid lid.
I'm guessing they held 5-10 gallons in each can.
I would assume a butter churn has a hole in the top for a plunger.
How large is each churn? Would it hold a fair amount of water?
I am guessing but I would think if the lining was safe for milk it would also be for water.

Has the zinc coating deteriorated?  Is there any sign of rust?

These are questions I would ask myself.

Tord Helsingeng wrote:Hi,

I have five milk churns, perhaps 70 years old, made of some kind of zinc alloy, I think.
Could these be used for storing drinking water?

Thanks for all input!

Unless you or someone was a collector of Butter churns, most families only had one butter churn.  And most butter churns, did not have handles for easy carry.  So as Thomas pointed out, most likely if you have like his photo showed, a Milk can...  These were (back in the day) used to hold the milk, when the strainer, was placed on top of the can, and filled to level required for each size.  There were some (up to 20 gal) but often 10's and 15's,  80 pounds, 120 lbs of water. It took a good man, to load and unload his route everyday.  All milk can's required a way to cool, and store, often a tank, which would hold 1 or two days of milk (cans) with the water from the wind mill, going through this tank first, then to the livestock water reserve tank, which generally ran by gravity to livestock water tanks.   Am dating myself somewhat here, but this was before pressurized water systems.

zinc, may have been a coating on the cans, (like often galvanized terms today)  or water pipes of old.. We still have some working without leaking over 70 years.

Zinc,  would not be considered an alloy that the can was made of, only coated with.

Before any get excited about using milk cans, very often two things have happened over the last 70 years, the lids (if they still have them) did not match the can, or the cans have sat on dirt or dirty floors and have rusted through,  if they were hung up, you got a good chance there good.  

All of the above is how it often was done in the midwest with the windmills, not sure on the rest of the world.

Often talked about on this forum, is how they got by with little to get a lot done.    We had ONE hit and miss motor, that belt drove a over head shaft, this shaft had three pulleys (one driven and two drivers)  The outside driver run a very long belt (30 foot) to the windmill, inside, it drove the wash machine and wringer. The hit and miss engine was also inside with outside exhaust. The top shaft had three bearing castings with babbet bearings.  The shaft assembly and building still remain and are used.  NO windmill or machines left.  OH yes, the water was heated with a wood stove in the same building. but you had to carry the water into this building from the milk cooling building.  (20 foot apart)   Oh the memories!  WE had 30 hour days back then, so didn't seem to be a rush in time.