Ball used several different machines to make jars throughout the years and they all have a certain look to them that you can tell most of the time which machine it was made on. The first photo will be of a Ball Bingham machine which some of my favorite jars have been made on. These jars will be a little shorter then jars made on the F.C. Ball machine and also will have wavy glass along with bubbles most of the time. F.C.Ball machine jars have bubbles a lot of the time but Bingham jars usually have larger bubbles and more noticeable. Note in the photo how the glass has swirl marks and in the center it looks like half of a marble sticking out. Also note the number and or letter as this is a dead give away for a Bingham jar. Another factor to note on a Bingham jar are the threads will line up from the top of the jar ( mouth ) along with the body side seams. F.C.Ball machine jars are different. ( most of the time )

  A view of a different bingham base with strong letter's

  Yet another slightly different Bingham base

   This photo is of an F.C.Ball machine jar. These jars normally will have a cupped base along with a round circle about the size of a quarter in the center or near the center. They also may have a number and or letter or hash marks such as ||| Also you may see 1 or more round dots or bumps on the base of this jar. A lot of these jars will also have around a 45 degree bevel on the upper shoulder near the threads whereas the Bingham jar is mostly straight with a soft roundness to it. These jars most of the time will also not have matching threads between the mouth and the body of the jar. I have seen some that were aligned but most often not. The way this machine made these jars the mouth was a seperate process from the jar and it went on where ever the jar happened to be at the time the two met. I'll post a photo below of the area to see how the threads don't align.

  You can see on this opalized 3L Ball jar how the threads are misaligned to identify the F.C.Ball machine

  Another view of a different jar showing the common cupped base and quarter sized circle

  This photo will be of an E.B. Ball machine jar. You can't really look at the base and identify this jar you will have to look at the mouth/thread area. You will see in the photo there is a fine set of threads at the very top of the jar. Some jars also have 4 threads which is called a quad helix, 2 threads hence double helix. The jar was made on the machine with a flat sealing surface on the rim where the seal is so it was perfectly smooth with no threads running through it for the ultimate sealing surface. These jars were removed from the machine in a separate process for the design of the jar having an extra set of threads. Ball loved experimenting obviously as there are many variations in a Ball jar you may encounter.

  A different jar showing the fine threads

  This will be a view of an Owens machine jar. There is an early mark and a later mark. The early jars have a very rough jagged valve mark so sharp at times you can easily cut your finger. Later machines were modified and it was much wider and smoother as you will note in the photo's. This was the machine that really cranked out the jars for Ball it was amazing.

  Later Owens machine jar showing the wider & smoother valve mark

  This photo is of a jar made on the Miller machine. These jars also have a unique look to them as the others. A flat recessed bottom with a small dime sized circle and a little squiggly line some call a centipede are the characteristics of these jars. These jars usually have pretty thick glass in the base and found on Drey, Ball Deluxe, Ball Eclipse, Ball Mason's Patent bead seal jars and a few other's.