Michael. . .

I'm not exactly sure when battery jars came into being, although I'd bet
folding money it was sometime around the turn of the century.  As for
other uses for the jars, my folks have several that they scavenged from a
cannery (dating to circa 1885-1920) on Kodiak Island.  Mom still uses them
for storing flour, sugar, pasta, etc.  Mom's jars are cylindrical, made of
some kind of ceramic, not glass.  However, they do have one embossed glass
rectangular battery jar that measures about 8 x 12 inches by 16 inches
tall (as memory serves. . .)

I'd venture that the battery jar was being used for storage, maybe some
kind of powdered chemical?  Of course, I suppose that the battery jars
could have been still used as batteries. . .


Kris Farmen
Northern Land Use Research, Inc.
Fairbanks, Alaska