Subscribe Email | RSS | E-Newsletters No, not at a movie on Saturday night. Instead, I mean how do you tell how old your Ball jar is?

I’m the current contact for information about historical Ball jars on the Ball Corporation web site.

Clamped Glass-Lid Jars (Lightning Jars) In 1882, Henry William Putnam of Bennington, Vermont, invented a fruit jar that used a glass lid and a metal clamp to hold the lid in place.

These humble glass pieces were designed for putting up fruits and vegetables in the days before refrigeration.

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While canning jars have been around for a long time, it wasn’t until 1858 that the screw-on lid was created.

Prior to that time, flat tin lids were attached to the jars with wax rings.