Courtesy of Vigo County Historical Society & Museum.Ī poster from World War I. Domestic canning spiked in popularity during World Wars I and II as home gardening and victory gardens became more common. And, in an effort to become even more appealing for at-home use, in 1909 George Ball and his wife published The Correct Method for Preserving Fruit. Within a few years, they became the largest manufacturer of canning jars in the world, and between 19 they steadily built their empire by buying up eight competitors. One color that was particularly popular was “Ball Blue,” which is a bluer shade of aqua (recently the color was re-released as a vintage product, along with purple and green).īy 1894, the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company began distribution of its iconic fruit jars to grocery stores, marking the beginning of the consumer market for their products. The Ball Mason jar was popular not only for its utility, but for its shape (there were several molds used), lids and varying colors. When the patent expired in 1884, the Ball brothers added the name Mason to their jars, creating the Ball Mason jar. John Landis Mason originally invented the Mason jar in 1858. The Ball brothers made various types of glass vessels, but quickly changed the focus of their business to fruit (canning) jars. As business grew, the company expanded to Terre Haute in 1905, purchasing a fruit jar making plant from the Root Glass Company in 1908. The five brothers set up their first manufacturing plants in Muncie, and began work under the name Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company. Originally from New York State, in 1887 the Ball brothers left their tin can making business in Buffalo, where they learned the benefit of lining their cans with glass, to join the glass industry in Indiana. Half-gallon round aqua glass BBGMCo fruit jar, 1884-86. Root, was not with the company long before leaving to start his own Terre Haute business, which he named the Root Glass Company. It produced glass bottles for beverages, including beer companies like Schlitz in Milwaukee, and other food products. The North Baltimore Bottle Company began in Ohio, and moved to Albany in 1895, where it stayed until 1900 before taking up permanent residency in Terre Haute.
The 1880s saw dozens of companies relocating or starting anew in Indiana because of the state’s natural gas supply, including the Ball Brothers Glass Company, the North Baltimore Bottle Company and the Root Glass Company. Plentiful local gas meant an affordable source of power for factories and glass kilns. The rise of the glass industry in Indiana began in Howard County with the discovery of natural gas in 1886. What many Indiana natives might not know is that it just as well could have been a Coca-Cola bottle or a Ball Mason jar, for each of these icons has deep roots in Indiana history. What would be Indiana’s unique symbol? Maybe an ear of corn or a basketball, some people joked, and it came as no surprise when the Indiana quarter was released in August 2002 that the back was stamped with an Indy 500 race car.
Everyone remembers anticipating the release of the state-specific quarters.
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