Talk:Mason jar

Merger
I propose merging this page with antique fruit jar —Preceding unsigned comment added by FiveRings (talk • contribs) 20:57, 26 March 2008
 * There was no support for the proposal, since "Mason jars" are still manufactured. Edison (talk) 02:11, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Band
I removed text claiming the screw-on band could produce a vacuum seal. The function of the band is merely to hold the lid in place while the jar and contents boil initially. Once the rubber under the lid has formed a vacuum seal, the band has no need to remain and can be removed, per the Ball Company instruction manual for canning. The band does not cover the top of the jar and could in no way form any sort of seal. Edison (talk) 02:11, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Improvised bomb
I added a template showing that a reference was needed for the claim that in Vietnam the jars were used as improvised aerial bombs, by pulling the pin of a hand grenade, placing the grenade in a mason jar, then dropping it from a helicopter. That would doubtless work, since when it hit the ground and the jar broke, the handle would be released to fly up, whereupon the grenade would kill people near it on the ground. But such a claim needs a reliable source to satisfy verifiability. One argument against it is that if the jar rolled across the floor of a helo, it could break in the aircraft, and the grenade would kill everyone on board. It is thus less secure and more dangerous to the aviators than even small aerial bombs used in World War One, which had an arming mechanism whereby a little propeller had to rotate many times before the detonator was armed. If there was a need for small aerial bombs, there were safer (for the dropper) ones than this. No ref was provided, so I removed the section, which is more related to the Vietnam War than to the Mason jar article. Edison (talk) 16:50, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

removal
I removed "Some old Mason jars used glass lids with separate rubber rings, instead of steel, and are now considered unsafe for canning." as glass lid canning jars are still manufactured and are considered safe. Most antique glass lid canning jars are also safe.Mrs269 (talk) 03:53, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

Drinking
Needs coverage expanded on their use as drinking vessels (traditional US) and the modern hipster version, where Mason jar mugs are now made, with moulded on handles (and still with the screw threads). Such preservation of a now pointless sealing feature might even be seen as skeumorphism. Andy Dingley (talk) 17:16, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

cloth covering?
I would like to know what is the origin of the practice of covering a finished canning jar with a cloth covering wrapped in string? It seems purely decorative now, but I think it originally had a purpose as a means of sealing the jar. The best reference I could find on this practice is from 'The Country Gentleman', 1896, Vol 16 page 417: '...To prevent preserves from spoiling, apply the white of an egg to a single thickness of white paper, with which cover the jars, lapping over an inch or so. It will need no tying, becoming when dry hermetically tight and strong...' My guess is the cloth cover is now just a qwerty phenomenon.

https://books.google.com/books?id=4-IxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA417&dq=canning+jar+cover+fabric&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRwPShurLKAhVMzGMKHT-BCTQQ6AEITjAG#v=onepage&q=canning%20jar%20cover%20fabric&f=false — Preceding unsigned comment added by Slashdottir (talk • contribs) 04:07, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

So WHO is making them in the USA?
I came here to find out WHO is making Mason / Kerr / Ball canning jars in the USA in the year 2016 and was sadly disappointed in this article, which ends with nothing more than obfuscation.Starhistory22 (talk) 22:18, 23 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Jardin Corporation makes both Ball and Kerr.

Hipsters
Hipsters now drink from Mason jars.

Thread Sizes?
What are the specifications for the cap threads? There must be a standard or convention because lids and bottles are interchangeable between brands and over time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.218.189.187 (talk) 04:26, 29 October 2019 (UTC)

Uncited material in need of citations
I am moving the following uncited material here until it can be properly supported with inline citations of reliable, secondary sources, per WP:V, WP:CS, WP:IRS, WP:PSTS, WP:BLP, WP:NOR, et al. This diff shows where it was in the article. Nightscream (talk) 19:23, 22 January 2022 (UTC)

LEAD SECTION
An integral rubber ring on the underside of the lid creates a hermetic seal. The bands and lids usually come with new jars, but they are also sold separately. While the bands are reusable, the lids are intended for single-use when canning. Glass jars and metal lids are still commonly used in home canning while they have been largely supplanted by other methods for commercial canning (such as tin cans and plastic containers).

Names
Mason jars are also called:
 * Ball jars: in reference to the Ball Corporation, an early and prolific manufacturer of glass canning jars
 * Fruit jars: for a common content
 * Glass canning jars: a generic term reflecting their material and purpose
 * Kilner jars: a UK manufacturer


 * Lightning fruit jars: another type of jar with a bail closure, were not as common as the screw-thread version, but they were popular for home canning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The jar
In the United States, standard-size Mason jars are made of soda-lime glass and come in two shapes: regular mouth, 2+3/8 in inner and 2+3/4 in outer diameter; and wide mouth, 3 in inner and 3+3/8 in outer diameter, versions. They are produced in a variety of volumes, including cup (half-pint), pint, quart, and half-gallon.

Use
In home canning, food is packed into the Mason jar, leaving some empty "head space" between the level of food and the top of the jar. The lid is placed on top of the jar with the integral rubber seal resting on the rim. A band is screwed loosely over the lid, allowing air and steam to escape. The jar is heat sterilized in boiling water or steam and the lid is secured. The jar is then allowed to cool to room temperature.

The cooling of the contents lowers the air pressure within the head space, pulling the lid into tight contact with the jar rim to create a hermetic seal. Once cooled, the band is removed to prevent residual water between the jar threads and the lid from rusting the band. If the jar seal is properly formed, internal vacuum will keep the lid tightly on the jar. Most metal lids used today are slightly domed to serve as a seal status indicator. The vacuum in a properly sealed Mason jar pulls the lid down to create a concave-shaped dome. An improper or failed seal or microbial growth will cause the dome to pop upward.

History
Competitors including jars with stoppers, spring wires, wire bails, cantilevered wires, and thumbscrews all proved less successful.

"Patent Nov 30th 1858", signifying the date of Mason's patent, was embossed on thousands of jars, which were made in many shapes, sizes, and colors well into the 1900s. Since they were made in such quantity and used for such long periods, many of them have survived to the present day.

The more esoteric closures were quickly abandoned, and thus can fetch high prices in today's antique market.

Mason applied for and received a United States trademark, which was registered on May 23, 1871, as U.S. Trademark no. 276.

The decline in Mason jar manufacturing in North America is due to a sharp decline in popularity of home canning in the 1950s and 1960s with the rise of supermarket canned foods, and the consolidation of the US canning jar industry.

Collecting
Antique canning jars are often sold through antique stores and auction sites such as eBay.

Colored jars were considered better for canning because the color blocked some light from reaching the food, which helps to retain flavor and nutritional value longer.

More rarely, jars will turn up in amber, and occasionally in darker shades of green. Rarer still are cobalt blue, black, and milk-glass jars. Some unscrupulous dealers will irradiate jars to bring out colors not original to the jar.

I question this section's objectivity.
Apologies if this is the wrong place for this, but this quote seems wholly opinionated while using the voice of Wikipedia:

" In a search for authenticity, commodification of Mason jars occurred leading to irony, as drinking out of canning jar highlighted overconsumption and lack of scarcity, the opposite of the designed intention of the jars. "

Not only is this nonobjective, as irony isn't quantifiable, it's source is a page that 404's. It is my understanding this is against the rules about having a NPOV. BrowserKitty (talk) 20:48, 3 March 2024 (UTC)