Collapsible reusable barrel for fluids

In a barrel for storing and shipping fluids and other materials comprised of a pair of frustrum-shaped shell-like barrel sections, each having a closed end and an open end larger than said closed end and being interchangeably nestable one within the other when disassembled, said barrel sections each having mating means for sealingly and detachably joining said open ends together with the respective interiors of said two barrel sections facing one another, the improvement wherein said mating means comprises:

• a pair of projecting flanges each extending peripherally around the respective open ends of said barrel sections, a resilient gasket for inserting between said flange pair, a plurality of unitary C-shaped clamp members having grooves formed on the outside bight portions thereof and being spaced around the periphery of said flange pair for holding said flange pair in non-contacting close proximity with said gasket compressed therebetween, said clamp members being detachable from said flange pair by the pressing of said barrel sections together momentarily to increase the compression of said resilient gasket thereby freeing said clamp members from engagement with said flange pair, and a binder strap extending around the periphery of said flanges and seated within said grooves for holding said clamp members onto said flanges.