# Threads on ball mason jar



## buddy bowman (May 24, 2014)

I have some jars that the threads have gap on both sides of neck. Want to know info on this. Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## cowseatmaize (May 25, 2014)

Hi, it sounds like it had a lugged cap. I'd like a little more info and maybe a picture also.


----------



## dygger60 (May 26, 2014)

LOL  your question told me the answer when you said the jar you had was a Ball Mason jar.    Your jar was made using the earliest of the Ball Brothers Machines.  The F.C. Ball (Frank C Ball) machine.   In 1896 Ball purchased from the United States Glass Company the patent rights to the Arbogast patentfor $10,000, quite a bit of money for the time.  The Arbogast patent called for the use of "forced air" intothe jar cavity or mold to form the jar.   Frank C. Ball took this and with some modifications made the *FC Ball machine* which was granted a patenton September 6th, 1898. This machine also used the forced air to form the jar, it had a rotating tablewhich allowed the operators to make 5 jars in a series, each mold pair set had three pieces, the neck ring mold,the solid blank mold and the finish mold.   As the table was rotated it came to the stage that the "neck ring mold" was screwed onto the top of the solid blank mold, before being rotated to the station that actually blew the molten glass into the mold. The molten glass was placed into the blank mold before this was done.  Now 99.9% of the time the mold seams did not align on these two sections and hence you have a gap between the body and the neck ring finish seams.  It is unique to this machine and it is how jars made on this machine are identified.  I have on eBay right now  (maybe some of you have seen it) an auction for the out of print FJN newsletters...this is in those newsletters, a VERY extensive and intricate segment is dedicated to early jar machines and how they were made:      OUT OF PRINT Fruit Jar Newsletters 5 complete years  95 -... (321412836132)

     David[attachment=FC BALL machine (341x540).jpg]


----------



## cowseatmaize (May 26, 2014)

Good info Dave, I don't know why the pic didn't take but I think I fixed it.I knew semi auto machines were out there prior to 1900 and as far back as at least 1894 but didn't know Ball had any.


----------



## dygger60 (May 26, 2014)

In the mid'ish 1890's Ball was under great pressure to have jars made by machine after the heralded successof the Blue glass making machine at the Hazel Glass Company in Washington, PA during 1896.       It is funny to note that the Ball Brothers traveled to Washington, PA to see these machines in use at Hazel and were not permitted past the fence...LOL       In 1896 Ball became interested in another machine patented by C.V. Arbogast in 1896, but from what I read it did not meet with Ball Brothers satisfaction for producing jars.       In 1897 Ball again tried another machine from Jonathan Haley....nothing was really said about this machine, although it was reported in a few journals that Ball did have several of these machines in the Muncie operations.       During this time, Frank Ball as working on a modified version of the Haley machine and patented it later that year.  And wala  we have the FC Ball Machine......it went pretty fast after that....       There was the FC Ball machine, EB BALL machine and the Ball - Bingham machine all before 1900.        It is worth mentioning that Ball Brother in another one of the biggest goof moves actually turned down a machine that would have cost them only a few thousand dollars to own the patent rights to, instead, a couple of years down the line those same patent rights to the same machine would cost them over $750,000.  LOL....live and learn.       But it is easy to say that the early years of semi to fully automated glass making was confusing...and all of it happening with the space of about 8 years or so.        David


----------

