Department of Health City of Baltimore cobalt bottle

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PlaneDiggerCam

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I got this for free for my birthday from an antique store owner. I would like to know the contents that would've been inside and what it was used for.
20180121_133456.jpg
 

nhpharm

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Tuberculosis Sputum container. In the 1910's-1930's, a bunch of states and cities had these containers that people suspected of having tuberculosis would put a sample in and they would be mailed off to a laboratory for testing. Very cool example...You see a few different versions but this is probably the neatest one I have seen.
 

botlguy

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Tuberculosis Sputum container. In the 1910's-1930's, a bunch of states and cities had these containers that people suspected of having tuberculosis would put a sample in and they would be mailed off to a laboratory for testing. Very cool example...You see a few different versions but this is probably the neatest one I have seen.
Great explanation, I had never heard of that before and never seen one of this containers.
Jim S
 

nhpharm

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Probably not more than $20 or so would be my guess.
 

nhpharm

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Yep...the majority of them look like clear straight-sided shot glasses. I have several from New Hampshire in their original shipping tubes and so forth. Tuberculosis was a big deal back then for sure.
 

PlaneDiggerCam

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At first I passed by it thinking it was not embossed. I took a closer look and it was! I couldn't believe I almost missed it. That just shows that you should always double check (especially cobalt:)). Now all I need to do is find a CT one!
 

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