Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
September,  1896.  / 
Gelatine  Capsules. 
487 
to  announce  their  methods.  How  long  they  adhered  to  Mothes' 
original  process,  or  when  improvements  were  made  is,  therefore,  im- 
possible to  say.  The  old  firm  of  B.  Keith  &  Co.  also  attempted  to 
introduce  empty  gelatine  capsules  and  manufactured  them  here 
about  i860,  but  soon  abandoned  the  attempt.  E.  Fougera  &  Co., 
of  New  York,  also  imported  French  capsules  for  many  years,  but 
during  the  last  twenty  years  the  domestic  capsules,  on  account  of 
their  cheapness,  superseded  those  imported. 
In  1863,  the  firm  of  H.  Planten  took  up  the  industry  of  empty 
capsules  for  powders  and  liquids.  The  first  capsules  intended  for 
powders  alone  were  called  by  them  jujube  paste  capsules  and  were 
offered  to  the  trade  before  1870.  Another  manufacturer,  Dundas 
Dick,  also  experimented  in  the  same  direction  and  secured  a  patent 
on  cone-shaped  capsules  as  early  as  1865.  The  first  inventor,  how- 
ever, to  manufacture  capsules,  as  now  used,  by  machinery,  to  devise 
ingenious  apparatus  for  their  production  on  an  extensive  scale,  and 
to  render  their  use  popular  in  pharmacy,  was  Mr.  F.  A.  Hubel,  of 
Detroit.  He  secured  his  first  patent  for  a  capsule  machine  Febru- 
ary 13th,  1877,  although  he  had  already  manufactured  and  sold 
empty  capsules  as  early  as  January,  1875.  (See  Parke,  Davis  &  Co. 
price-list  of  1875.)  From  this  date  till  1883,  we  find  a  long  list  of 
patents  in  the  records  of  the  Patent  Office,  some  of  them  granted  to 
Mr.  Hubel,  some  to  other  inventors.  Disputes  as  to  priority  soon 
arose,  and  lawsuits  followed,  in  which  Mr.  Hubel  was  victorious. 
His  whole  output  is  brought  into  the  market  by  Parke,  Davis  &  Co. 
The  following  is  the  process  employed  by  him,  which  I  copy  ver- 
batim from  a  letter  that  Parke,  Davis  &  Co.  had  the  kindness  of 
sending  me  in  answer  to  my  inquiry : 
"  Metal  moulds  set  in  metal  plates  are  first  lubricated  and  then 
dipped  into  solution  of  gelatine.  They  are  withdrawn  at  a  regu- 
lated speed,  the  solution  being  of  a  given  temperature,  and  that 
temperature  being  higher  according  as  the  temperature  of  the 
moulds  is  lower  and  vice  versa.  The  temperature  of  the  moulds 
and  of  the  solution,  and  the  speed  at  which  the  moulds  are  with- 
drawn, determine  the  thickness  of  the  capsule.  The  solution  com- 
prises 7  parts  of  water  to  4  of  gelatine.  After  dipping/  the  gelatine 
investment  is  allowed  to  congeal  sufficiently  and  it  is  then  cut  by  a 
special  cutting  machine,  and  the  waste  about  the  cut  is  shoved  away 
from  the  capsule.    The  capsules  are  dried  by  passing  a  current  of 
