The Doctor Is In - I'm Not

Although those of us who love history often think fondly of the past, when I come across artifacts like this wooden doctor's box I am reminded of how happy I am to live in the 21st century!  This box is part of our collection and the tools inside would have been used on human beings in the days before general anaesthesia and antibiotics.  These boxes contained surgical instruments that doctors used when amputations were necessary.

The box has a hinged lid and two shelves inside.  On the bottom is a green rough cloth, most of which is worn off.  Inside it is lined with deep red velvet and has indentations for the equipment it carries.

The first shelf contains clippers, a puller, a tenaculum, and a knife.  The clippers are made of metal and have sharp cutting edges.  The puller is metal as well with vise shaped teeth.  Both have two handles in order to get a good tight grip.

The knife shown below is metal with a rubber handle.  The rubber is not smooth so that even if the surgeon's hands were sweaty or covered in blood, he would not lose his grip.  This knife was used to cut through flesh and muscle, down to the bone. 

The bottom shelf has two saws and a spiral tourniquet.  The cloth was wound around the limb and the spiral was turned to tighten it as much as possible in order to stop the bleeding.  Once the knife had done its work, the surgeon would then use the large saw to cut through the bone and finish amputating the limb.  The smaller saw was used for smaller bones.

The tenaculum shown below is made of wood and metal and was used to pull 

arteries out of the stump once a limb had been amputated so they could be tied off and stop bleeding.

So, next time you see volunteers fund raising for hospitals, remember this equipment.  Thank goodness amputations are not as common today, but if they are necessary, these tools stay in the museums and out of the operating rooms.  

No Stuffing Allowed

Nowadays when we vote, we use a paper ballot that gets put into a cardboard box.  Well, in Canada anyway - the U.S. is an entirely different story!  But back in the day, ballot boxes were made of wood with the name of the polling area engraved into them.

You can see the box in this picture has "Westfield" engraved into it with gold lettering.

It was sealed with wax in order to secure it and minimize the risk of having the ballot box "stuffed" with fake votes.  You can still see some of the red wax that was used to seal this box.

The box has a brass handle on top and a hinged lid.  When you open it, you can still smell the wood.  You know that feeling you get when you open a new book and smell that wonderful, new book smell?  It's a very similar feeling.





The good thing about using wooden boxes is that they weren't discarded and could be used over and over again - very environmentally friendly.  The not-so-good side was that they had to be stored somewhere safety so they wouldn't suffer damage like rot and mold.  Imagine how much space a ballot box for each polling area would take up!  Each box also had a key to lock it, which you can see if you look closely at the bottom of this one.  This ballot box was found in the attic of the Kings Co. Courthouse and was donated to the museum in 1966.  It's currently used as our admissions donation box.

And, if you come to the museum and want to smell the ballot box, just ask.  I totally understand. 

Not Your Local Beauty Cream!

Can you imagine having a job where you are given anti-gas ointment as part of your standard equipment?  That’s exactly what soldiers in World War 2 had!  Although gas masks were the number one defence against a gas attack, particularly mustard gas, more was needed. 

The yellow tin of Anti-Gas Ointment No. 2 is small and easily fits into a pocket.  It’s hinged on one side and contained 8 tubes of cream.  This particular tin has 7 tubes.  Whether they were unused because they weren’t needed, or unused because the person who had them was not able to use them, we do not know.

The instructions on the tin are very clear; the front of the tin tells you what it’s for and the back has clear instructions on how to get the cream out of the tubes.   The tubes themselves have directions as well - probably good because if you're in a panicked rush, you probably aren't reading the tin!

If you were gassed, you had to wipe off the residue as quickly as possible then get the cream on your body right away.  Being exposed to mustard gas was expected, and this cream has a strong alkaline content which helps neutralize the gas residue that would end up on someone’s skin.  Rubbing the cream on your skin would not prevent gas burns, but would lessen them.

As the wars went on, the military discovered it needed different sorts of creams for different environments.  The yellow tin, No. 2 ointment featured in this picture was used mainly in environments that were cool and dry.   Blue tins were anti-gas ointment No. 5, and green tins were anti-gas ointment No. 6.  No. 6 was mainly used in hot, humid environments like Southeast Asia.  

Night Vision

They just look like an old pair of binoculars but they are really "Binoculars for Night Use" issued by the RCAF to soldiers fighting in World War 2.  You can see the "RCAF" engraved into them in the photo below. They are a little over 4" high and about 4" long so easily fit into one hand.  You can see from the picture that the bigger lenses at the end are quote a bit larger than the ones you look through!

Made of brass with a black coating you can see the wear on them where they would have been held. They are difficult to adjust and fairly heavy.  There's a small wheel on the top that you can move but it's not easy.  I can't imagine being a tailgunner, flying at night in a plane trying to adjust these quickly while looking for enemy aircraft.

They fit into a nice, hard leather case lined in blue velvet.  The case has leather loops on the sides as well as brass buttons that can attach to straps.  On the top written in white letters is SF6625.  If anyone knows the significance of this number we'd love to hear from you in the comments below! 

The Royal Canadian Air Force was renamed in 1924, prior to that it was simply called the Canadian Air Force.  Night vision goggles have come a long way since World War 2.