Pill Roller / SOLD

Pill Roller - Inventory Number: MED 233 / SOLD

Pharmacist’s tool of the trade, this brass bound pill machine is best known by collectors as a pill roller and will fit nicely in any collection of Civil War medical items. During the Civil War the making of pills entailed the creation of a dough-like material containing the necessary medication, rolling out that dough to form an appropriately sized quarter inch thick sheet. The pharmacist placed the dough sheet on the machine base and pressed the top or paddle over the sheet drawing the paddle back and forth cutting and forming the material into cylindrical strips which were cut to appropriate length to afford the proper dosage and rolled into pills. All complete and functional this device offers good evidence of age and period use yet remains in excellent condition with a pleasing untouched age patina.

 Inventory Number: MED 233 / SOLD