Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
Historic Treasure of the Week -
October 23, 1983
By Richard C. Tuttle
Vigo County Historical Society
Cork pressers were used to seal bottles
The drug store of yesteryear had many implements not seen in today’s drug store, and with which today’s druggist is not familiar.
One of the oldest pieces of equipment, necessary in the early days, and one that probably disappeared from use the earliest, is the cork presser. The cork presser pictured here is part of the Antique Drug Display at the museum, courtesy of William F. Bindley of E.H. Bindley and Company. It is a cast iron lever-pressure machine which compressed the cork into a size that would fit into the neck of a bottle.
Note the different size holes, allowing for the different sizes of bottle openings. Use of the presser discontinued about the turn of the century, as manufacturers started to make many different sizes of corks in wedge shape. Early corks were cylindrical in shape, enough inserted in the bottle to hold, and enough outside the bottle to prevent pushing all the way through.
Liquid prescriptions, of a single or several ingredients, were poured into the bottle after being measured in graduated containers. Often a powder was also mixed in with the liquid. Corks were needed for all liquid prescriptions.
In the very early days of medicine, doctors filled their own prescriptions from office supplies, or a few containers in the familiar black bag. Drug stores were listed in the very early Terre Haute city directories, and largely confined their operations to filling subscriptions, selling a few patent medicines, tobacco items, often whiskey and sometimes candy. Doctors soon realized drug stores could compound any prescription faster and better than they could, and drug stores started to flourish.
Until about the 1950s, drug stores were largely neighborhood centers, most family owned and operated. The advent of the drug store supermarket about that time started the demise of the neighborhood store. First, the drug store discontinued the soda fountain, then certain items of inventory in an effort to stay alive. Many new items were added to the shelves and displays to compete with the large chain outlets. But this was not to be, and by 1975 practically all corner drug stores were gone from Terre Haute neighborhoods.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.