UnderMiner
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- Jun 26, 2020
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Finds from yesterday's hunt.
Great Radium Spring Water Co. Pittsfield Mass.
The company was run by a man named F. M. Osteyee out of Pittsfield Massachusetts. Originally selling Pine Crest Spring Water since at least 1901, F. M. Osteyee changed the company's name to Great Radium Spring Water Co. in 1914, likely in a bid to take advantage of the emerging radium health fad sweeping across the US at the time. There appears to be no evidence that Radium Spring Water products contained any Radium.
The Ideal Mineral Water Manufacturing Company of 234 East 121st Street New York:
In situ:
Here's a picture of the street the mineral water company operated on taken in 1919. The company would have been in one of the buildings on the right side of the street in the middle of the block. (This image was taken on 121st street in Harlem on 3rd ave. facing toward 2nd ave.)
Papayans bottle.This small tooled lip amber bottle once contained the patent medicine "Papayans" which was the pre-1914 predecessor to the more modern "Bell-Ans" tablets.
Papayans claimed to be a cure-all made from papayas but in 1909 the Journal of the American Medical Association did an analysis of the medicine's contents and determined it to contain "charcoal, sodium bicarbonate, ginger, saccharin and oil of wintergreen, but no papayas."
After learning of the growing scrutiny in the medical community towards the product, as well as to avoid legal troubles with the FDA for misbranding, Papayans parent company Bell changed the medicine's name to "Bell-Ans" and toned down the product's medicinal claims.
An Ozomulsion patent medicine bottle. Unfortunately the lip has a piece missing off of it but otherwise there are no other damages.
This bottle appears to be a popular item sold by online auctioneers who all seem to claim it dates to the 1880's, but I cannot substantiate this date, nor determine where this date originates from apart from the seller's imaginations. Based on the years of the other bottles I've been digging at this site I instead think this bottle dates from about 1900-1910. If anyone can substantiate the true time frame of this product's manufacturer please share.
A Pat. Feb. 1893 Karl Hutter porcelain Lightning Stopper bearing the words "Albert H. Sydney Co. Providence R.I."
Also found this slick Warranted Flask:
Great Radium Spring Water Co. Pittsfield Mass.
The company was run by a man named F. M. Osteyee out of Pittsfield Massachusetts. Originally selling Pine Crest Spring Water since at least 1901, F. M. Osteyee changed the company's name to Great Radium Spring Water Co. in 1914, likely in a bid to take advantage of the emerging radium health fad sweeping across the US at the time. There appears to be no evidence that Radium Spring Water products contained any Radium.
The Ideal Mineral Water Manufacturing Company of 234 East 121st Street New York:
In situ:
Here's a picture of the street the mineral water company operated on taken in 1919. The company would have been in one of the buildings on the right side of the street in the middle of the block. (This image was taken on 121st street in Harlem on 3rd ave. facing toward 2nd ave.)
Papayans bottle.This small tooled lip amber bottle once contained the patent medicine "Papayans" which was the pre-1914 predecessor to the more modern "Bell-Ans" tablets.
Papayans claimed to be a cure-all made from papayas but in 1909 the Journal of the American Medical Association did an analysis of the medicine's contents and determined it to contain "charcoal, sodium bicarbonate, ginger, saccharin and oil of wintergreen, but no papayas."
After learning of the growing scrutiny in the medical community towards the product, as well as to avoid legal troubles with the FDA for misbranding, Papayans parent company Bell changed the medicine's name to "Bell-Ans" and toned down the product's medicinal claims.
An Ozomulsion patent medicine bottle. Unfortunately the lip has a piece missing off of it but otherwise there are no other damages.
This bottle appears to be a popular item sold by online auctioneers who all seem to claim it dates to the 1880's, but I cannot substantiate this date, nor determine where this date originates from apart from the seller's imaginations. Based on the years of the other bottles I've been digging at this site I instead think this bottle dates from about 1900-1910. If anyone can substantiate the true time frame of this product's manufacturer please share.
A Pat. Feb. 1893 Karl Hutter porcelain Lightning Stopper bearing the words "Albert H. Sydney Co. Providence R.I."
Also found this slick Warranted Flask:
