In Alexei Ivanov's "Rechflot" I came across a passage about early tankers. He writes: "Oil and petroleum products were transported only in containers; the practical Americans came up with cheap rectangular "barrels" made of thin tin, while the Russians, in the old-fashioned way, loaded round oak barrels onto ships, expensive and inconvenient, so imported kerosene from the USA was cheaper in Russia than domestic kerosene from Baku."

I became curious about what these "rectangular barrels" were. This fact reminded me of stories about square-section whiskey bottles, which were easier to transport compared to ordinary ones. And a principle familiar from childhood, which relatives associated with the armed forces called "army-style": roll square things, carry round ones.

In short, some kind of false "Lefty-ism" - tell the Sovereign Emperor that the British don't clean barrels with bricks! - with all due respect to the author (in my student years I greatly enjoyed reading his Ural-centric novels).