Collection Agents

talkwithcherra:

In 1795 Napoleon offered a 12,000 franc prize for a method to preserve foodfor the military.  Chef Nicholas Appert, whose background included both pickling and brewing, won the prize by developing a method of heating food in glass containers and sealing them with pitch.  In 1810 an Englishman named Peter Durance invented a method to use metal containers to preserve food.  In both cases, it was for military advantage that the processes were developed.

Food preserving works by creating enough heat to kill all organisms and enzymes that could spoil food and sealing out any new ones from entering.  The earliest home canning involved a glass jar with a tin lid and sealing wax.  The parts were not re-useable because the sealing wax acted a bit like cement.  Even so it was a step forward from earlier preserving methods of drying, pickling, salting and smoking.  Canning offered a way to preserve a greater variety of the summer’s harvest.

In 1858 tinsmith John L. Mason developed a way to cut threads into a metal lid.  Mason paired the threaded and gasketed lid with a matching threaded glass jar that was re-usable.  Home canning became a new sensation.  This Mason jardesign was used for decades.  You will still find them in general stores and antique stores.  If you see 1858 on the Mason jar, that is the patented date and not the date of the jar’s manufacture.
In 1915 Alexander H. Kerr, whose company was founded in 1903, developed the glass jar with a gasketed flat metal lid held in place until sealed with a threaded metal ring.
The Ball brothers were container manufacturers who switched to glass jars in 1883.  This is the name that dominates the home canning industry today.

You can buy canning jars in a variety of sizes and shapes today.  The most common sizes are pint, quart, half gallon and gallon.  You can also buy 4 and 8 ounce jelly jars as well as half pints.  You can purchase jars that have wide mouths or regular mouths.  You would want a wide mouth jar if you were canning something like turnips or sweet potatoes.  Regular sized mouths work well for liquids or small items like carrots.

Prices vary on these products, but you really get what you pay for.  A glass jaris an investment for the savvy home canner.  Glass jars can be used over and over again.  The only recurring cost with canning is the metal lids and sometimes canning rings.

For some folks, cans are collector’s items.  Some jars are made from different colored glass or they’re really old.  You may have two hobbies if you start canning, canning and jar collecting.