After a soldier had been in the field a little while, and thrown away or lost the curious and complicated kitchen furniture he started out with, he found that by melting the halves of his canteen apart, he had a vessel much handier in every way than any he had parted with.

It could be used for anything -- to make soup or coffee in, bake bread, brown coffee, stew vegetables, etc., etc.

A sufficient handle was made with a split stick.

When the cooking was done, the handle was thrown away, and the half canteen slipped out of the road into the haversack.

There seemed to be no end of the uses to which this ever-ready disk of blackened sheet iron could be turned.