The Ball Jar

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Mason jars are also called Ball jars - in reference to the Ball Corporation - an early and prolific manufacturer of glass canning jars.

Five brothers founded Ball in 1880 with a $200 loan.  In 1884, the brothers began making glass home-canning jars, the product that established Ball as a household name. The brothers—Edmund, Frank, George, Lucius and William—moved the company from Buffalo, New York, to Muncie, Indiana, in 1887 to take advantage of abundant natural gas reserves essential to making glass.

In the 1830s until the early 1840s glass jars used for home canning were sealed with wax poured into a channel around the lip to secure a tin lid.  A tedious process that was error-prone - wax sealing was pervasive until other sealing methods were developed.

By far the most popular and longest used form of closure for the glass canning jar was a screw-on zinc cap – a precursor to today's screw-on lids.  In 1858, a Philadelphia tinsmith named John Landis Mason invented and patented a screw finish glass jar or bottle that became known as the Mason jar.  (U.S. Patent No. 22,186).

Glass jars and metal lids are still commonly used in home canning.  The mouth of the jar is threaded to accept a metal ring referred to as a "band".  When the band is screwed down it presses a separate stamped steel disc-shaped lid against the jar's rim.   Equipped with a rubber seal on its underside the lid creates a hermetic seal during processing.  The bands are reusable – and the lids are intended for single use when canning.

Ball Corporation is still around and has been in more than 45 businesses since its founding. While they no longer manufacture the ubiquitous canning jars - the company has expanded and grown into a worldwide metal packaging business that makes billions of recyclable metal containers and includes an aerospace division.  Ball operates manufacturing facilities on four continents and is based in Broomfield, Colorado.

If you visit their website the Ball brothers' founding spirit lives on in the motto “We Can!”

Today Ball is the largest supplier of beverage cans in the world.