John Landis Mason would be so proud right now.

Back in 1858… he  invented… come on.   This is Utah.   I bet his invention is in your kitchen pantry right now.    

Guesses?  

OK...John Landis Mason came up with a rubber seal that rests on the top of a glass jar.  A metal band screws loosely onto the jar…   and you have the perfect system for canning your fruits and vegetables. 

US Patent number 22,186

John Landis Mason invented… the Mason Jar. 

And he’d be proud how popular it is right now.   Remember all those panicky people who started big vegetable gardens for the first time last spring.  All the folks who sprinkled seeds…  after they grappled with chaos at the grocery store?

All those people spent August and September buying mason jars.  And now there’s a shortage.    Sales are up 600%… and those two part lids are getting hard to find.     No matter what you do… don’t reuse old lids.   You could end up with botulism.

Meantime the namesake of the Mason Jar..  … who also invented the screwtop salt shaker…  John Landis Mason… died penniless.   His patent expired… competitors swooped in and destroyed his business.  He died in poverty in 1902

And his heart is preserved in a Mason Jar.  

No… I made that last part up.   It’s not.

But it is true.  He died broke in a New York City poorhoouse dead broke… and today his family gets nothing from the jars that bare his name

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