Meeting Minutes, March 1st, 2015

Transcription

1 Since 1972 Midwest Glass Chatter March 2015 Meeting Minutes, March 1st, 2015 Club Officers Richard Cole, President 2904 W. Moore Rd. Muncie, IN Dave Rittenhouse, Vice Pres S. 900 W. Farmland, IN Jim Durr, Treasurer 500 W. Ohio St. Fortville, IN Joe Coulson, Secretary/Editor 889 Berry Rd. Greenwood, IN The March club meeting was canceled due to deep snow conditions. The department of transportation announced that the roads in Delaware County were not going to be plowed. As a result of the road conditions, Minnetrista was closed. Upcoming regional bottle shows: 04 April 2015 (Saturday) Belleville, Illinois - 16th Annual Antique Bottle & Jar Show & Sports Collectibles combined with Breweriana Blowout XVI at the Belleclair Fairgrounds Belleville, Illinois, 9:00 am 3:00 pm. Free Admission at 9:00 am; 11 April 2015 (Saturday) Kalamazoo, Michigan The Kalamazoo Antique Bottle Club s 36th Annual Show & Sale, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, early buyers 8:00 am at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds, 2900 Lake Stret, Kalamazoo, Michigan; 11 April 2015 (Saturday) St. Clairsville, Ohio The Ohio Valley Bottle Club s annual Bottle & Table-Top Antiques Show, 9:00 am 2:00 pm, early buyers 8:00 am at the J.B. Martin Recreation Center, 102 Fair Avenue, St. Clairsville, Ohio Exit 216 off I-70. The next club meeting will be held April 12th at 1:30pm at Minnetrista. The theme for Show and Tell will be jars with glass lids. Respectfully submitted, Joe Coulson An Index to the Club Library is available online. Please contact Dick Cole about items which you would like to check out. Membership The Midwest Glass Chatter is a monthly publication and is a forum through which collectors can share information. Membership cost is $15.00 per year, per family, due each January 31. All jar/bottle related collectors are welcome. Send to MAFJBC, Attn: James Durr, 500 W. Ohio St., Fortville, IN New Ball Drinking Jars Released Ball 16oz and 24oz drinking jars are made with the same high quality glass as Ball canning jars with the addition of a handle to make holding the jar easier. Made in the USA is embossed on the jar below the Ball logo on the front of the jar. These jars are not recommended for home canning. Can be used with regular mouth Ball Sip & Straw lids, Ball plastic storage caps, or any regular mouth 2-pc caps for drink storage. The drinking jars come in sets of 4 with a list price of $ Photos and details from this website: hpreservingstore. com/ball-24-ozwide-mouthdrinking-mug-setof- 4/shop/620021/

2 Page 2 The Ball Pitcher, by Richard Cole In the early 1980s, Ball Corporation s Consumer Products Division, who was in charge of the homing canning part of Ball s product line, decided to introduce a new product. Since Mason jars had been used as drinking glasses in restaurants for years, they had for several years produced a jar with no threads in the finish. Removing the threads made it harder to dribble the contents down your shirt front. This was called the sipper jar. It came with a detachable wire handle that clamped on around the neck. The wire handle did not work well and was not popular with the consumer. So it was decided to make a jar with a glass handle molded into it. Two sizes were made: 16 and 32 ounce. These proved popular and Ball made over three million. Because of liability concerns, the jars were heavily annealed to increase their strength. You could literally bounce them off the carpet. Trying to milk the market for all it was worth, Consumer Products then came up with the idea for a pitcher. The concept was to sell sets consisting of a pitcher and 4 or 6 mugs. The design for the pitcher was based on the standard Ball half-gallon jar, with a sipper finish and a glass handle. (See photo 1) These were produced in As is common, when they were done with the production run at the plant, they made a few "special" jars. They swapped out the base plate of the mould and put one in that was indented. Only six of the special jars were run. Photos 2 and 3 show the jar and the base compared to the original pitcher to show the difference. Figure 2 Special Run Pitcher Figure 3 Comparison of Bases Figure 1 Original Design Pitcher

3 Page 3 The Ball Pitcher, cont d After having made the pitchers, Ball found out that they had a problem. When the pitcher was filled with ice and water, and it was picked up, the glass handle would tend to snap off. Not a good scenario. A half-gallon of water, ice and broken glass on the floor. Is this lawsuit ready to happen? So back to the drawing board. They redesigned the pitcher, taking out some of the capacity by reducing the shoulder and also putting the handle lower on on the side of the jar. It ended up looking somewhat deformed, as you When they had completed a production run of the new pitcher, they naturally had to again play games. This time they turned the neck ring 180 degrees. This put the spout directly above the handle, making it impossible to pour. The result was lovingly called the Polish Pitcher. My apologies to anyone of Polish heritage out there. (continued on next page) Figure 4 Modified Pitcher Figure 6 Backwards Spout Pitcher Figure 5 Comparison - New Version on Right

4 Page 4 The Ball Pitcher, cont d The fifth and final version that I know about has been questioned as to whether it is an intention version, or just a manufacturing defect. A single example of a pitcher is known that has a dip in the top lip, at right angles to the spout. Some claim it is a defect, others say that it was meant to allow the pour of ice in a glass. Anyone who has been a waiter knows the ice won't go through the spout, so to put ice into a glass, you have to pour it out the side. This dip would assist in accomplishing this. It is also located exactly where a righthand person would need it to pour ice. See what you think. (Photos 7 & 8) These are the five (or maybe four) varieties of the Ball Pitcher with which I am familiar. I have heard of examples without the spout, but have not seen any. If anyone knows of a variety that I did not cover, please let me know. Figure 7 Water Pitcher Richard Cole Reference: Dick Roller s Standard Fruit Jar Reference 2011, pages Figure 8 Close-up of finish

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6 MIDWEST ANTIQUE FRUIT JAR & BOTTLE CLUB A jarrific place to share and learn Send articles and info here: Joe Coulson, Editor 889 Berry Rd. Greenwood, IN JoeCoulsonX5@gmail.com ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED WE RE ON THE WEB! This is a picture of the packaging for the recently released Ball Drinking Mason Jars. A person could make a nice collection of just drinking Mason jars that were produced by different manufacturers over the past 20+ years. There are quite a few. Announcements Upcoming club meetings: Sunday, April 12th, 1:30pm meet at Minnetrista, theme is jars with glass lids Sunday, May 3rd, 1:30pm meet at Minnetrista, theme is jars with non-screw type closures Our club is a member of the Federation of Historical Bottle Clubs (FOHBC). The FOHBC has many resources and interesting articles on their website as well as a list of bottle shows: Please send in your membership dues renewals to our Treasurer, Jim Durr, if you have not already done so. Thanks.