Pic 1 is the oldest of the bunch from what I've found while searching online (it also has a defect/warp in the glass, right between the patent year). The only other jar that is that style is the one in pic 7, though it is about half the volume.
I've never seen the jars with glass lids (pics 5 & 6), but they're super neat!
Would these have been used for canning or something else? It doesn't seem like they could get a proper seal with it being glass-on-glass, but I also have zero experience in preservation methods like this.
Any and all information is appreciated! Thanks in advance 🙂
by DrifterDom
10 Comments
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Those would be great for storing decorative items. Dry storage of food items if an airtight seal isn’t that important. There were rubber gaskets for these, I believe. Not suitable for actual canning.
You can’t use them for canning but I use them for dry storage (you can get silicone seals that fit) and also for random decorative stuff like forcing amaryllis and other bulbs.
Lucky Lucky
I love the old blue Mason Ball jars and buy them anytime I can find them! I use them either for decoration (I have one in my quilting area that’s filled with wooden spools) or, for the smaller ones, I put homemade coffee syrups (pumpkin spice, caramel vanilla, etc.) in them and store them in the fridge (or counter; the pumpkin spice is shelf-stable by itself) to use in my coffee.
I’ve never actually canned with them; they’re old enough that I worry that they’re too fragile for my pressure canner and I don’t want to water-bath can something and have it not seal properly.
Those jars with the glass tops and metal piece are referred to as lightning jars because they were lightning quick to seal in comparison to the technology that came before it such as wax seals.
I have some lightning jars as decoration in my kitchen.
We have maybe two dozen of the ones with the metal clamp (clip?). We use them for dry storage.
The blue ones are special to me because I love the Great Lakes. The sand around the dunes of Lake Michigan is what the Ball Brothers used and what produced that color.
https://indianahistory.org/blog/the-hoosier-slide/
They were used for canning when they were new. Probability used for years.
Glass ,especially old glass, can suffer small bumps that damage the glass but are not visible. The stress of the canning process now could cause them to break. That’s why most folks here use them for dry storage or just decorative
Nice! I have a bunch too, i thrift and have a hard time leaving them in the wild. Filled a few with the old little people from Fisher Price lol