Tablet Manufacture in History

The early tablets (and, unfortunately, many of to-day may be classed with them) were compressed hard, and made without reference to their solubility or to their power to disintegrate, and little skill was required in their preparation. On the other hand, the proper manipulation of the medicinal ingredients, and the choice, proportioning, and manipulation of excipients best suited to use with the different formulas, require a considerable degree of skill, as well as an intimate knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of the ingredients. During 

Compressed tablets are believed to have been made first in 1844, by Professor Brockeden, in England, who, in using a machine for the compression of lead for use in pencils, conceived the idea that the same principle could be applied to the compression of drugs and chemicals into tablet form. He thus compressed potassium bicarbonate and sodium bicarbonate. These tablets had a considerable sale both in England and in this country, where they were sold by Mr. Frederick Brown, of Philadelphia. 

In 1871 Professor Brockeden s business was purchased by the Messrs. Newbery. 

About this time, Mr. Jacob Dunton, of Philadelphia, began to compress a variety of formulas, including quinine tablets, on a machine of the Brockeden pattern. 

Shortly after this, about 1872, Messrs. John Wyeth and Brother, in conjunction with Mr. Henry Bower, succeeded in producing a machine which, while still a handpress, was so much of an advance over the previous patterns, that the cost of compression was materially reduced, and the resulting tablets were successfully exploited. 

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