Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> "Melba's Jammin'" > wrote in message
> ...
>> In article >,
>> "Ted Mittelstaedt" > wrote:
>>
>>> I wonder if this is all a plot at Jarden to get us to move to those
>>> super expensive "Ball Collection Elite Platinum" lids that are just
>>> plain steel with a poly coat, no color anodization. It's the old story
>>> of introduce a cheaper replacement product, label it with a more
>>> expensive-sounding name, then make the existing product cruddier
>>> and cruddier over the following years so that it becomes unusable and
>>> you have to go to the more expensive product that gives you less.
>>>
>>> Ted
>> My Fair intake ladies politely asked me to please not use those jars
>> (they refer to them as flat jars) because they take up too much room in
>> the display case and they like to display as many of the entries as they
>> are able to. I can think of one woman there who would be apoplectic
>> over it if it came to eliminating the taller jars. I have some old Ball
>> and Kerr jars that are squareround and round -- wide mouth openings.
>>
>
> Just a bit of jar history,
>
> The original Mason jars all were round - these were all blown by
> hand, and a round jar is easier to make. These can be identified by
> sprue breakoffs at the bottom. Most of these were wire-and-bale.
>
> Later on, they were made by machine but they kept the traditional
> round shape. Anything with lettering/numbering in the base was
> machine-made.
>
> Then in WWII, one of the war boards in it's quest for material savings
> decreed that canning jars must be manufactured square. They felt that
> the square jars would use less cardboard packaging for the same
> amount of food. The official line was that square
> jars saved a small amount of glass during the manufacture, but I believe
> this is mathmatically false.
>
> The square jars were unpopular with consumers, so after the war the
> jar manufacturers went to the rounded/squarish shape, as a compromise
> to the consumer, yet still retaining some of the cardboard packaging
> savings.
>
> Of course, today we don't even get much cardboard at all anymore
> in the packaging. Also gone are the days when canning jars were
> more interesting - does anyone remember the Bicentennial Mason
> jars from 30 years ago?
>
> Ted
>
>
Yeah, I'm still using some of them.