Title: Pill Machine

Identifier: Country Doctor Museum   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/13883)

Description: The pill machine was invented in Germany around 1750 and this invention quickly spread to America. This pill machine has two parts: the bottom part is wood encased in brass with a grooved plate; and a top part or roller with handles and a brass grooved plate. It has metal bearings on the top part to facilitate the back and forth motion of the roller. Medication would be combined into a pill mass and rolled out to form a cylindrical pipe. The pipe would be placed across the grooved plate of the pill machine and the top part would roll over the pipe forming pills. According to the book, "The Pill Rollers," the pill machine was a standard part of the pharmacist’s equipment for almost 200 years and the machines changed very little over time. They disappeared from general use during the 1930s. Without local pharmacies available, country doctors also would have used pill machines to create their medicines.