Gifted by Wilsons Pharmacy.

This slightly strange looking object would have been used by early chemists to turn medical powders and supplements into easily digestible tablets. The active ingredients for the pill would be powdered in a mortar and pestle, and then mixed with liquid glucose to form a stiff but pliable mass. This would then be rolled into a sausage shape and moved over the ridged part of the machine and stretched to the number of pills required. Then the handle was guided to cut the sausage into pill shapes. This is a far cry from making pills today, produced one a massive scale with less precision required by the chemist, to make the paste and then roll and cut it into the perfect dosage!