Fruit Jars Just Before the War

While looking through some of Alexander Bracken’s files on the Hartford-Empire lawsuit, I ran across these figures. I assume that this constitutes the total fruit jar production in the United States for the year. There might be other companies whose production would have been minimal compared to these major players.

1939 Fruit Jar Production

Ball 54.5%

Kerr 21.5%

Hazel-Atlas 17.6%

Owens 6.4%

The files are part of Minnetrista Cultural Center’s archives. Bracken was Ball Brothers’ chief lawyer (and their son-in-law). Hartford-Empire was the maker of the Individual Section (IS) glassmaking machines and eventually became Emhart. In a lawsuit, Ball was found guilty of conspiring to form a monopoly with Hartford-Empire, but that’s a story for another time. I thought these figures would be interesting.

Written by Richard H. Cole, Jr.

© 2003 Minnetrista

First Published in September 2003 Glass Chatter