Wow! Tons of this stuff? Very cool-I think Tom and Bob are correct about the middle device. It very definitely looks like some kind of applicator; though for what kind of material is hard to determine. The fragment in the upper right does look like a syringe, I suspect for a male urethral syringe. The problem with that ID is that it is one of my interests, so I see them more easily than others do and there could other explanations. The examples I have seen tend to be a little more standard and refined than this example and are mostly from the 1890's or later. Could this one be from the 1870's? Were hypodermic syringes from this period mostly in metal? The other two tubes are even more difficult to interpret, looking at the rest of the colorless glass from this context may help by looking for more complete examples and possible cross mends. I, know that a disposal feature can make that difficult. The melted, or fused example in the lower register is either burned after use or may be part of a container. Definitely medicinal, but is it institutional or personal? Are there bar related artifacts (Beer, Liquor, Wine bottles, glasses and fragments)I have seen a lot of small pill bottles or tubes in some bar waste(illegal drugs perhaps). I have also seen clinic waste from the turn of the 20th century and it looked quite different. There were few prescription bottles there, only the larger containers that the material had be shipped in. Colorless glass and hard rubber were the plastic of the late 19th and early 20th century. A huge number of devices were made with it in some form; not just tableware, bottles and windows. The 1890 Truax catalog can be downloaded from Google for free, check it out for state of the art medicine of that period. It also includes a lot of questionable devices; some with glass!
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob Skiles
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 8:57 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: More glass tubes
Although Tom may be right in surmising the bulbous ended item as a Mercurochrome (or other topical liquid) applicator, it appears a tad long for the ones I remember, as well as appearing to be a hollow tube with a closed end, instead of being a solid rod (as I remember the Mercurochrome applicators being). Besides, the active ingredient of Mercurochrome (Merbromine) wasn't discovered as an antiseptic until after WWI, and the Mercurochrome wasn't available commercially until some time afterward. All of which is saying that while yours' is not an applicator for Mercurochrome (which we kids referred to as "monkey blood"), doesn't mean that it couldn't have been an applicator for some other solution.
All things considered, together, your items certainly do have a "medical" or "apothecary" feel to them. The large cylinder appears to be an early type of syringe, and none of the other items would have been out-of-place in a physician's bag, drugstore, or apothecary shop (lab) of the 1870s. These are also the types of glassware items I have seen in collections from places (I hesitate to use the word "lab" even though actually appropriate, since it is likely to convey a highly erroneous modern image) where various plant extracts (viz: ingredients for the ubiquitous patent medicines of the age, "essential" oils, perfumes,
etc.) were produced.
Are any of your pharmaceutical bottles embossed with a label? Have you done the background archival work on the property that might point-to or suggest its use for this purpose? Were any purveyors of snake-oil based with the address of the township your site is located within?
Regards,
Bob Skiles
On 2/5/2013 7:16 AM, W. Thomas Langhorne, Jr. wrote:
> Sarah,
>
> The middle artifact, the glass tube/rod with the bulbous end, looks
> like the applicator from a mecurochrome (sp?) or similar bottle,
> though it appears to be longer than I remember. This chemical was
> used as a topical disinfectant when I was young (1950s) and for years
> before. I remember finding old, half empty bottles of the stuff in my
> grandmother's medicine cabinet which certainly dated back into the
> 1940s and maybe the 1930s. The bottle itself was usually brown glass
> and fairly small (2-3 oz). It came with a natural rubber stopper into
> which was inserted a clear glass rod/tube (1- 1 1/2 inches long) as an
> applicator. The applicator had a bulb at the end, much like your
> middle example. You would gather the stuff on the applicator and then
> paint it on wherever you'd scraped, punctured, etc. yourself.
> Because the stopper was rubber, it had a tendency over time to seal
> itself to the bottle neck, as another poster has remarked. When that
> happened, you just got a new bottle of the stuff. I imagine you were
> also supposed to throw out the bottle that the stopper had sealed
> itself to, but often these were just pushed to the back of the shelf.
> Also, it was possible to break the glass applicator if you applied too
> much pressure or in the wrong dimension. I have no idea of the medical efficacy of the chemical, however.
>
> Perhaps you have a larger version of the glass applicator I've described.
> I'm sure there were other topical medications or other substances
> that could have been applied using these types of applicators. I'd be
> interested to hear what others have to say about it.
>
> Tom
>
> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 4:20 PM, Croucher, Sarah <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> While we are on the subject of glass tubes, I also have some that I'm
>> curious about. There is a link to a photo of some of them below, but
>> we have tons of these coming out of what seems to be a dump context.
>> There are all kinds of materials mixed in, but we've also found a
>> Whitall Tatum & Co flint glass prescription bottle (
>> http://www.sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/WTandCo_BLockhart.pdf), dating
>> from the 1870s through 1890s, and a liniment bottle dating to the
>> same time period. This makes me think that these are likely related
>> to medicinal production in some way, but I'd love some more
>> information, if anyone has any.
>>
>> You can view a photo of some of our objects at:
>>
>> https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/labs/Middletown_Materials/Website%20fil
>> es/Glass%20Tube%20photo.JPG
>>
>> Best,
>> Sarah Croucher
>>
>> ***************************
>>
>> Sarah Croucher
>>
>> Assistant Professor
>> Wesleyan University
>> Anthropology Department
>> 281 High Street
>> Middletown, CT 06459
>> USA
>>
>> Telephone: 860-685-4489
>> http://scroucher.faculty.wesleyan.edu/
>> http://beman-triangle.research.wesleyan.edu/
>>
>
>
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