apothecary’s pill rolling machine
https://mhc.andornot.com/en/permalink/artifact7725
- Dates
- 1800
- 1899
- circa 1800-1899
- Collection
- University Health Network - Academy of Medicine Collection
- Category
- Pharmacy and Drug Artifacts
- Classification
- Pharmacy, General
- Accession Number
- 1980.18.120 a-b
- Description
- The pill machine consists of two parts, a top and bottom plate; both plates are made of wood with brass fittings.
1 image
- Accession Number
- 1980.18.120 a-b
- Category
- Pharmacy and Drug Artifacts
- Classification
- Pharmacy, General
- MeSH Heading
- Drug Compounding -- instrumentation
- Description
- The pill machine consists of two parts, a top and bottom plate; both plates are made of wood with brass fittings.
- Number Of Parts
- 2
- Part Names
- top plate - Size: Length 41.0 cm x Width 7.0 cm
- bottom plate - Size: Length 34.2 cm x Width 21.0 cm x Depth 2.8 cm
- Provenance
- Acquired from the Academy of Medicine; source: Mr. Dean Charters.
- Dates
- 1800
- 1899
- circa 1800-1899
- Date Remarks
- Original record had "19c."
- Material
- wood: brown; red
- metal: dark yellow
- Inscriptions
- Stamped "6/Gn"
- Permanent Location
- Storage Room 0010
- 0010-A8-1
- Temporary Location
- On display, Queen's University Department of Medicine third floor, August 20, 2013.
- Unit Of Measure
- centimeters
- Condition Remarks
- Some scratches on the plates.
- Copy Type
- Original
- Research Facts
- Stages to making a pill: 1. A prescription for pills would give the weight of medication in one pill and the number of pills required. Multiplying these two figures gave the quantities to be weighed. 2. The medication was mixed with very thick and viscous syrup fo glucose for form a stiff pliable mass, which was rolled to get a 'sausage' shape. 3. The 'sausage' was placed on the pill base grooves and rolled to a length correspond to the number of pills required. 4. The roller handle was guided to cut the 'sausage' and roll the cut pieces that are the pills. 5. to round out the edges, the cut pieces where put into a lidded circular bowl or a pill silverer and rotated until the pieces are round balls. At this time the pills can have a silver, gold or candy coating.
Images
