"The Dental Cosmos: A monthly Record of Dental Science", Volumes XII–XVI
James W. White
1870–1874
Published by S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Co. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ether is a common inhalation anesthetic to make dental procedures more comfortable for the patients.
Cajuput is similar to eucalyptus oil and is used to treat many different ailments including toothaches.
A tooth powder advertised for “cleansing, preserving and beautifying the teeth,” Calder’s Dentine was composed of 56% chalk and 44% wintergreen flavored soap. It was used from the 1860s–1920s.
Albert C. Calder Company, Providence, Rhode Island
State Board of Dental Examiners of Iowa
Charles Elmer Woodbury, DDS, was born on January 11, 1866, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and graduated in the fourth dental class of the University of Iowa. He was a professor at Creighton University from 1908–1949 and professor emeritus of Operative Dentistry. He designed over 100 dental instruments during his career and was the first dentist to use gold foil to fill teeth. He organized the first Woodbury Gold Foil Study Club in honor of his father, Dr. Edmund Israel Woodbury.
The elder Dr. Woodbury arrived in Council Bluffs via steamboat on July 1, 1859. He is considered the first dentist in Nebraska and the only dentist between western Iowa and Denver, Colorado, at the time.
An elevator is an extraction instrument used to remove the stump of a tooth or a difficult root. Elevators were first described by Albucasis (936–1013), who is generally recognized as being the leading Muslim surgeon of the Middle Ages and the Father of Modern Surgery.
Dental screws were extraction instruments used for the removal of the stumps of teeth (particularly incisors and canines) where no part of the tooth remained that could be grasped by forceps or other extraction instruments.
Celluoid, developed by John W. Hyatt in 1868, was the first synthetic plastic. From 1870–1890, it was used to craft dentures, but fell from favor because of its unpleasant odors and a failure to hold the desired shape. During processing, denture flasks were placed in heaters like this one where the flask was compressed. Heat was supplied from an external Bunsen burner-type apparatus.
S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Co., Cycloid Dental Chair
Original Upholstery
Patented December 28, 1875, the cycloid dental chair catered to the beginning dentist. The chair was lightweight and yet well balanced.
Dental Chair with Spittoon, Invented by James Beall Morrison
Original Upholstery
The Morrison dental chair was the first to introduce the compensating seat and back rest making it the first fully adjustable reclining chair with headrest. It was invented by James Beall Morrison, the same American who invented the 1871 foot-powered dental drill. Morrison dental chairs were a common chair produced for nearly 30 years and used in many dental school clinics, including the Lincoln Dental College (1899–1919) in Lincoln, Nebraska—the forerunner of UNMC’s College of Dentistry
Dental Drill, invented by James Beall Morrison
Original Gold Leading and Paint
The first foot-pedal drill was sold at a dental meeting in Binghamton, New York, on April 17, 1872. Morrison claimed his drill could attain 2000 RPM, a significant increase over previous hand-operated drills that only generated 15 RPM!
Part of Morrison’s patent claimed the invention of transfer of power using a flexible coiled wire, but this had already been described by James Nasmyth, an engineer from Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1829. Nasmyth invented “a mode of transmitting rotary motion by means of a flexible shaft, formed of a coiled spiral wire or rod of steel.” In 1858, Charles Merry, a dentist from St. Louis, incorporated Nasmyth’s invention of rotary motion via a flexible shaft into a hand-driven dental drill called the "Merry Drill." It is unknown whether Morrison was aware of Nasmyth’s invention.
