U Of Mich. Pharmacy 1891 (8407)
My favorate state of Michigan again comes up with a stick that makes the United States shine with an example of one of the best systems sticks around. I'm hoping, in time, to determine what are the distinctive of different countries system sticks. The four main countries of system sticks are U.S., England, Germany, and France. The four superpowers of the industrial age. I've only just started to think about this, but I think the U.S. and Germany has the most elaborate with France third and England haveing the most gadget canes. My definition of gadget canes is one use and system two or more.
The cane we are talking about today has a lot of uses. It's a college cane with, I presume, everyone in His graduating class, pinpoint signing it. That in itself is unusual. There are two few signitures to have everyone in the pharmacy dept. sign it. Its an advertising cane with the pharmacy, again I assume he worked for, on the top of the cane. By screwing the knob off it reveals it's an ink well. Below that is Fitches Pharmacy scale in its nickle plate brass box. I assume this is a part that was made for another use, pocket scale. Below that is four medicine bottles that hold powdered medicine with cork tops. In the ferrule is the pen for the inkwell. The ferrule is of typical American manufacture, bimetal. The shaft is 1.6" in diameter making it massive by my own definition of 1.5" or over. The shaft is made of pitch pine, or what is often called Spanish pine. I don't know how common a wood that is in America. I saw it a lot in the furniture I used to import from Europe. It is redder and has more grain than white pine. It typically doesn't have knots. I don't remember seeing another shaft in this wood, as it is a soft wood, which means it has needles instead of leaves. Although there is a inferred meaning that soft wood is softer than hard wood that is not always the case. The definition is soft is a conifer, needles and hard, leaves. Maybe they went with this, because this is such a large shaft. Were all the class the same size? My opinion is that he planned this cane before he graduated, and knew he was going to work there. Maybe his father owned it, and gave it to him as a graduation gift.
Category: Gadget Sub Category: Occupational - Tools
Listed: 2006-07-22 13:49:24
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