text: Google bell jar and you find out lots about Sylvia Plath but not much about chemistry...\nThe bell jar was probably not an invention in the usual sense of the word.  Bell jars were in use by alchemists in the middle ages (way before A. G. Bell), and may well date back much further.  Alchemy is believed to have started about 2000 BC in Egypt, although China, India and Arab cultures were also early practitioners.