A little token of Red Bank history has surfaced south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
This photo was sent to redbankgreen by Jamie Hall from North Carolina, who found this item in a local shop down there.
It reads “Try Katsin’s First” with the address of 15 Broad Street, Red Bank, NJ. The other side (not pictured here) reads, “Prescriptions carefully compounded.”
We don’t have any idea what this thing is, although we’re guessing it’s an opener of some sort.
We did some poking around and found a big ad for Katsin’s Pharmacy at that address in a 1920’s edition of the Red Bank Register newspaper.
The list of items for sale made us think perhaps the North Carolina find is a tool for opening a fresh container of Father John’s Medicine or Squibbs Liquid Petrolatum.
We then checked the US Patent Office website’s list of patents issued on the day engraved on the item to see if we could identify it that way.
There were almost 700 patents issued on that one day alone.
We saw patents issued to inventors for everything from a poultry feeder to a wireless telegraph. We also found an ingenious device to solve the 1923 problem – heretofore unknown to us – of people struggling to open paper bags.
It led us to wonder if Katsin’s ever employed the M&S Blogg paper bag opener for the convenience of its customers.
And we realized this entire search was giving us a touch of the vapors. If only we could shoot down to Katsin’s for some Blaud’s Iron Pills, we’d feel better.
At any rate, Hall is open to offers from Red Bankers who want to buy the historical doohickey she found down in North Carolina. And our comments section is open for anyone who can tell us what the heck it is.
She can be emailed at [email protected].
