Darrow School - Shaker Post Yearbook (New Lebanon, NY)

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1936 if 4 TT if iiiTheiiPieig Board ix THE LABORATORY Reproduced from Harpefs Magazine, XV Cjuly 18575, 173. thus expressed are then put in copper pans, inclosed in iron jackets, in such manner that steam is introduced between the jackets and the pans and the liquid boiled down to the proper consistency for use. Some juices, in order to avoid the destruction or modification of their medical properties, are conveyed to an upper room, and there boiled in a huge copper vacuum pan, from which, as its name implies, the air has been exhausted. This allows the liquid to boil at a much lower temperature than it would in the open air. In a room adjoining the vacuum pan are mills for reducing dried roots to impalpable powder. These roots are first cracked to the size of samp in the room below, by being crushed under two huge discs of Esopus granite, each four feet in diameter, a foot in thickness and a ton in weight. These are made to revolve in a large vessel by steam power. The roots are then carried to the mills above. These are made of two upper and a nether stone of Esopus granite. The upper stones are in the form of truncated cones, and rest upon the nether stone, which is beveled. A shaft in centre, to which they are attached by arms, makes them revolve, and at the same time they turn upon their own axes. The roots ground under them by this double motion are made into powder almost impalpable. In a building near the Extract House is the Finishing Room, where the preparations, already placed in phials, bottles, and jars, are labeled and packed for market. This service is performed by two womeng and from this room those materials, now so extensively used in the materia medica, are sent forth. These extracts are of the purest kind. The water used for the purpose is conveyed through earthen pipes from a pure mountain spring, an eighth of a mile distant, which is singularly free from all earthy matter. This is ofinfinite importance in the preparation of these medicinal juices. They are, consequently, very pop- ular, and the business is annually increasing. During the year 1855 they prepared at that laboratory and sold about fourteen thousand pounds. The chief products are the extracts 37

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The Peg Board 1936 THE EXTRACT HOUSE Reproduced from Harper's Magazine XV Uuly 1857j, 173. medicinal fields and gardens. The extra laborers are generally females. These fields and gardens cover about seventy-five acres, a portion of which is devoted to the cultivation - s of various herbs and vegetables for their seeds. This building was used by the Shakers until 1875. On Saturday, February 9.7 of that year, at eleven o'clock in the morning, Fire broke out in the press room. After about half an hour s ' h l l' ht battle, in which Sister Emma Neale had an important part, it was extinguished wit on y s ig damage, but two hours later fire was again discovered in the same building, which this time was totally destroyed' Unfortunately, there was no insurance. The making of extracts must have begun before 1832, for the Manyesto tells us that in that year a large building was demanded for the trade. ' This was known as the Extract House. The same writer who described the Herb House has left us an interesting sketch of the work which went on in the Extract House and in the Finishing Room, which was in an adjacent building: The Extract House, in which is the laboratory for the preparation of juices for medical purposes, is a large frame building, thirty-six by one hundred feet. It was erected in 1850. It is supplied with the most perfect apparatus, and managed by James Long, a k'llf l h ist and a member of the Society In the principal room of the laboratory the s 1 u c em , . chief operations of cracking, steaming, and pressing the roots and herbs are carried on, to- gether with the boiling of the juices thus extracted. In one corner is a large boiler, into which the herbs or roots are placed and steam introduced. From this boiler the steamed herbs are conveyed to grated cylinders, and subjected to immense pressure. The juices 8. Harper's Magazine, XV Uuly 18571, 172. 9 This tire occurred only a few weeks after the great fire of February 6, 1875, which destroyed eight buildings. Sister Emma tells ll! that it has been proved conclusively that both were of incendiary origin. 10. XX Kseptember 18907, 194. 36

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The Peg Board 1936 VACUUM PAN AND CRUSHING MILL Reprodured from Harpefs Magazine, XV Cjuly 18571, 174 TUE HYDRAULIC PRESS. Erplamrtzkm of the Press.-A, the cylinder: B, the platen: C, the hopper into which the herbs are placed, and fall through the platen upon the movable bed,A turned by eogsg D, a. plunger which presses the herbs: e, the orifice in the platen through which the plunger drops: h, another plunger that pushes the preued herb-cake through the lower bed, i, into the trough, K: n, m, apparatul con- nected with the power below: 0, the driving-wheel. Reproduced from Harper's Magazine, XV Uuly 18573, 172 38