Well, what do you
make of the picture on the front page? Bet you identified a chair,
an odd and old walking stick (hanging from back of the rocker,
left), a hand-wrought iron poker, (right) of artistic design and an
old fashioned bed warmer (box-Like affair hanging on string, lower
front of photo.) But what is that object with a handle like a
corkscrew and a hook on its end?
“Everybody has a
hobby” is an old saying and if you keep at it long enough you will
learn that your most intimate friends, aye, relatives, have their
hobbies. And so have Deputy Sheriff John Ed. Davis of Yaphank and J.
P. Tonsfeldt, druggist of White Salmon, Washington. It’s a long way
between Yaphank and White Salmon, away up in the Columbia River
section of the state of Washington. Kipling wrote: “East is East and
West is West but never the twain shall meet,” but these two men have
met through one of their hobbies- an old fashioned tooth puller.
Now the secret is
out. That corkscrew handled object in the photo is an old tooth
puller of the type called “turnkey” and was owned and operated
“gratis” by Davis’ grandfather. In fact, John Ed. Recalls having a
molar extracted by means of the hand-made iron tooth puller. He
cannot tell how old the “instrument of torture” is and neither can
Dr. Mordecai H. Overton, well known Patchogue dentist. The latter
believes it is the oldest of its kind on Long Island.
Davis thinks the
turnkey is not only the oldest but the cruelest piece of man-made
machinery he ever saw. Its wooden handle is four inches long and
about one inch thick. The rod to which it is attached is about seven
inches long and as thick as a lead pencil. On the lower end is
welded a solid piece of iron (which is hidden in the picture by the
rod), square in shape with a beveled edge. The hook like end of the
rod is another piece of iron that wings at the will of the tooth
puller. It has notches in it so that it can get a “strangle hold” on
a tooth after it is fitted around it. Once upon a time the old time
doctor, barber or professional tooth puller used to travel around
the country in pursuit of business, the latter wearing a belt
studded with teeth to advertise his trade and prowess at ending
toothaches.
Davis believes that
Dr. Leroy L. Hart man of Columbia University school of dental and
oral survey, who recently gave to the world his formula for
desensitizing teeth during drilling, must have seen or read about
those “instruments of torture” used by old time tooth pullers. At
any rate, the Hartman announcement supported by the prestige of
Columbia, has served to remind the world, that dental surgery has
gone a long way since the days when barbers were the chief tooth
pullers.
It was not until 1844
that something like painless dentistry came into use. And then, Dr.
Horace Wells, of Hartford, Conn., was called a faker when his
invention, “laughing gas” failed in its purpose and instead of
putting a patient to sleep, it made him yell long and loudly.
However, Dr. Wells induced 12 college students to take the gas and
when they started laughing their heads off but suffering from the
experiment he was conducting, his name was made. Hartford erected a
monument to his memory. Since 1844, cocaine and Novocain have been
used to deaden pain in drilling teeth. “it certainly will be more
comforting,” opined Davis, “to go into a dentist’s office and look
at a bottle of Dr. Hartman’s formula that one of those tooth pullers
such as mine.”
After viewing Davis
tooth puller we decided to look up our registry of hobbyists. And we
came across a collector of old tooth pullers, J. P. Tonsfeldt,
druggist, of White Salmon, Washington. We secured permission to send
Tonsfeldt a picture of Davis’ tooth puller together with a request
for some data on the hobby and if you don’t believe the saying:
“there’s nothing new under the sun,” read Tonsfeldt’s letter, which
follows. Davis refuses to sell his tooth puller.
Oh yes, before you
reach Tonsfeldt’s letter, let us explain that the old bed warmer in
question was used by Davis’ grandparents to warm their beds in the
days before steam hear or even heat above the first floor. It is
made of metal enclosed in a wooden frame. You lift its hinged cover,
fill the enclosure with stones heated in a fireplace or atop a
stove, close the lid, slip the warmer between the sheets early in
the evening, and when you retire your bed is warm. John wants us to
dig up some bed warmer hobbyists because he has several of these
old-time heaters.
The hand-wrought iron
poker is an artistic looking affair. It was made to resemble a
branch of a tree and the knots and stumps of trimmed branches are
very real looking and evidently were pounded out on an anvil by an
expert blacksmith. The natural wood cane is “not very old” according
to Davis “only about 80 years.” Nothing seems old to Davis unless he
can trace its origin back more than 100 years.
Following this letter
from one hobbyists to another:
White Salmon,
Washington
January 17th, 1936
Inquiring Reporter,
Mid-Island Mail, Patchogue, N. Y.
Dear Sir: I got your
letter and picture of turnkey. That picture sure had
me guessing for a
little while, until I used a magnifying glass on it and then I could
tell what was turnkey and what was shadow. It is about the plainest
type, straight rod and has a screw in the end that hold the hook.
There might be just s slight difference in the size or the handle,
but it is so near what I have that I can’t use it. When I first
looked at the picture I thought that it was anther two-hooked affair
like one I got from Detroit not long ago. It has one hook at the end
that hooks over a back tooth to help steady the instrument and the
other hook slides on the rod, which is square, until it is in line
with the tooth that is to be pulled. Quite an ingenious affair, made
by some blacksmith:
I have one on the way
now from Ohio, it is all iron folds somewhat like a jackknife. That
will make fifty I have, all different. Pretty soon I’ll have 57’
varieties’ like Heinze, only Heinze’s are pickles.
How would you like to
sit on a foot stool and throw your head way back and a fellow behind
you hold your head between his knees and reach in with one of these
old instruments of torture and pull a tooth. An old fellow just a
few days go told me that he had a tooth pulled that way about 1884
in Vienna, Austria. He said, “O it works right, he yanked it out in
a hurry”.
If you get a hold of
any that are different than this don’t fail to write, or send it by
insured parcel post, and if I use it I’ll make an offer, and if we
don’t make a deal I’ll return it by insured parcel post and I’ll pay
the postage both ways.
I am not a curio
dealer. Turnkeys, keys, old guns and arrow points from the Columbia
river are my hobbies.
Yours truly,
J. P. Tonsfeldt.