Taller pint-Ball Perfect Mason????

[towhead]

Anyone know what the F stands for? -Julie

 

[madman]

http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/owensbottlecompany.pdf

 

[madman]

julie i believe it stands for fairmont w.v. there was an owens plant there, scroll down to page 57 on the above link

 

[bobclay]

Hi Julie and Madman,

Sorry I haven't been able to respond more often, but my computer time has been very limited of late.

Even though there was an Owens plant in Fairmont, WVA these were not made by Owen's. They were made by Ball and in Muncie, Indiana. (where all of the Ball blue jars were made) Almost all of the Perfect Mason jars with offset type embossing have a number AND letter on them. And they were all produced on the early version of the Owen's machine with the smaller base scar. We're not positive what the letters actually stood for, but I suspect the letter referred to the line that was making the jars as Muncie at one time had over 70 lines producing jars. (I'm not sure exactly how many Owen's machines were in use in Muncie c1913-1914 though) I do know that Ball's primary machines were the Ball-Bingham machine (several modified versions were in use simultaneously) and the early Owen's machines (they acquired rights to make jars on in 1909 when they bought the Greenfield Fruit Jar and Bottle Company) up until 1915 when they began using primarily the newer, larger Owen's machines as their productivity was greatly increased over the Ball machines. And most of the Ball-Bingham machine jars also had a number and letter on their base, so perhaps that is how Ball chose to identify the moulds coming from different machines during this time frame.

I don't have a bunch of these offset PM to actually look at but you could pose the question at the BJCCC (link below) and I'm sure they could shed more light on the subject of what numbers and letters are seen on the bases of this type of jar. Go into the 'Show Room Floor' and post a question. They have the jars they can look at. []

http://balljarcollectorscommunitycenter.yuku.com/

Bob

 

[bobclay]

Hi all,

I have posed the question to the Ball Jar Collectors Community Center regarding what the letters on the bottoms of this particular genre of jars might mean. Give them some time to look at their jars and I'm sure they will have something to contribute to this puzzler.

Go to the link above to the BJCCC and then click on the 'Show Room Floor' to see general posts. This post is entitled 'Question regarding RB #272 offset embossing style'. Click on that title to see any responses.

Bob

 

[madman]

thanks bob for the great info !

 

[towhead]

Thanks Mad & Bob!! Will be watching for more info! -Julie