Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1899-05-12
2El&GI7oNS
(fEz-Si- rIslCTC
Ia A PILL FACTORY.
Cincinnati He. one OF the Finest In
the United states

the United states.
Ont in the west end they turn ont
Thousands Of Tiils day-pills Of every
size and shape and color. q every price
and consistency. and yet 20 nine-tenths
Of our people the process Of munufac-
ture is mystery. There are only five
Of the kind in the country, and each
employs its own herb gatherers and
bark strippe.s, who penetrate the Wild
est and most inaccessible Of the worlds
iungles and morasscs. each gathering
some particular plant or herb or bark.
There is one man who truvUrses the
Ohio forests in search Of golden seal,
which is employed in medicines design
ed for treating the mucous membrane.
and another who gathers only mullen
stalks The originator Of the firm, es-
tablished 90 years ago, was the first
civilized man to gather podOphyli.n.
WHICH acts like poison ivy on some gath
erers and is totally harmless TO others.
In one chamber are stored huge pack
ages Of belladOnna leaves, whose volatile
effects are too we'll known TO need de-
scription, and yet sample of every nat
ural product is carefully tested before
the mass from which il was Grawn ut
random is us, ].
The May apple roots collected in Ohio
and northern kentucky are thrown iuio
huge percolator capable Of holding
2, 400 pounds of roots and seven barrels
of alcohol. a vacuum is created, the al
cohol run in and the mixture automatic
ally macerate3 for from one to five days.
There are 30 smaller percolators, each
holding so pounds OF chemicals, and
one La ge one with a capacity Of Loo
loUnds. Il glimpse into the stillroom
reveals 10 copper stills, each holding
ten gallons. in which the 500 different
extracts employed ure distilled for n
week or two, special kettle being re-
served for the preparation OF bOrOglyc-
erin. Side by side are the cold Gistill-
ing room, where the volatile drugs are
prepared, and the drying room, which
is kept at uniform temperature Of 12O
degrees. and in which long pans Of Ill
smelling powders are simmcring.
In the dark. cavernous cellars behind
the glass storeroom, are the earthen-
ware watts for the storing Of salicylic
acid and oil Of wintergrccn, the still
employed for the settling Of al.:aloids
and huge hempcn sacks, with the raw
material from worlds forests. There
are nux vomica from Brazil awaiting
the grindCys. cascara bark from the Pa
eific, indigo bark from farotf Uruguay
herbs from our own swamps ana mead
ows, lichens from the northern ATTITUDES
and banks from the Indies, with min
erals from the bowels of the earth and
leaves from the tops of forest GOlaths
During the summer the street arabs
gather the corn silk from the market
folks and sell it to these chemists at j
cents per pound.
Upon the fourth floor are the bottling
and labelling departments, the cham
bers where the poison walls are filled
and the huge label room, where labels
bearing the number of the brew from
which that tube was filled are stored in
$500 different compartments, alpha
betically arranged for ready use Chloro-
form, being patented, is not manufac-
tured here.
In the building where the pills are
made the visitor first sees the doughlike
mass being rolled, cut into shape and
then placed in the interior Of huge
globes of copper, which have been pre-
viously sprinkled with sugar, chocolate
or other pleasing coatings and revolyed
at the rate of $50 turns per minute,
causing the pulverized flavor to adhere
to the yet moist pills, The operation re-
quires about ten minutes. These pills
range in price from 81 to 30 cents Per
100.
In the next apartment rumbling in
struments cut square or circular tablets
from the mass. at the same time com
pressing them and feeding them into
reservoirs at the rate Of 1, 600, 600 a day
Over by the window are two German
gelatin coating machines in which sleeves
holding from SO to goo pellets are firmly
fitted, the sleeves dipped into the gelatin
pan below passed over belts into a
drier, reversed and passed back, i'm
mersed again, dried once more and
come out filed with gelatin clad cap
sules. The capsules pass into drying
room and from thence to the pickers,
who discard those bearing the slightest
blemish and set the others to week 8
curing, when they are packed and ship
ped. -Cincinnati Commercial Tribune