John Landis Mason (1832 in Vineland, New Jersey – February 26, 1902) was an American

tinsmith A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same w ...

and the patentee of the metal screw-on lid for antique fruit jars that have come to be known as

Mason jar A Mason jar, also known as a canning jar or fruit jar, is a glass jar used in home canning to preserve food. It was named after American tinsmith John Landis Mason, who patented it in 1858. The jar's mouth has a screw thread on its outer perime ...

s. Many such jars were printed with the line "Mason's Patent Nov 30th 1858". He also invented the first screw top

salt shaker Salt and pepper shakers or salt and pepper pots, of which the first item is normally called a salt cellar in British English, are condiment dispensers used in Western culture that are designed to allow diners to distribute grains of edible salt ...

in 1858.

Inventing career

In 1858, he was a freemason who invented a square-shouldered jar with threaded screw-top, matching lid, and rubber ring for an airtight seal – the Mason jar. Until the 1830s, long before

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

and hothouse gardens, many fruits and vegetables had been available only seasonally, but the recent development of jars had made canning a practical alternative to drying, pickling, or smoking to preserve food. Prior to Mason's innovation, jars had a flat, un-threaded top, across which a tin flat lid was laid and sealed with wax. It was messy, unreliable, and unsafe – if the wax was not applied properly it allowed bacteria to thrive in the jar. Mason's easy and re-usable jars made home canning procedures popular among American settlers, homesteaders, and even in urban homes, but most Mason jars were manufactured by competitors after his patent expired in 1879.

Personal life

He was married and had nine daughters, six surviving to adulthood. He died in poverty in a tenement house in New York City in 1902.

Patents

United States patent Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...

22,186, dated November 30, 1858, is primarily on the use of exterior threads in the jar and a corresponding metal cap. Later patents such as Nr.102,913 improved upon this in various ways such as the addition of rubber rings. *. *. In the case of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, 94 U.S. 92 (1876), CONSOLIDATED FRUIT-JAR COMPANY v. WRIGHT, the Court ruled that Mason's patent had been abandoned to the public.

References

External links

MANUFACTURE OF FRICTION-MATCHES. U.S. Patent 68
at www.todayinsci.com Text of 1858 patent

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, John L. 1832 births 1902 deaths 19th-century American inventors People from New York City People from Vineland, New Jersey