Mason jars stand everywhere at-the-ready as stolid, gleaming icons of utility, transparency, and authenticity.
But wait. Why is that name in glassy relief across the jar-front not "Mason?" Why "Ball?" Or "Kerr?"
The answer lies in a classic encounter of a food system need with capitalistic machinations that were anything but straightforward. Was Mason, an inventive tinsmith, also a fraudster or just dumb about business?
And how did the Ball Brothers -- all five of them -- segue from "wood jacket" cans that did a poor job of containing some of the most toxic substances available in the 1800s to market domination of Mason jars? America's foodways get disrupted in amazing ways.