U.S. transportable laboratory

The last thing I expected to find two weeks ago was this !

As I was relic hunting at a local flea market I came accross this huge kaki box . I first thought it was WW2 U.S.but the buyer told me it was British made. It was too big to be carried away fro mthe fair , if you didn't have a station car or a truck, so it had not been sold and the seller wanted to sell it to make space , so he could get "rid of it". I offered to pay for it but asked him to bring it back the next week , so I could come with a bigger car and take it home. This is what happened:

Upon cleaning I saw a big red cross appearing and some markings that said "transportable laboratory". After some googling I realized I was the new owner of chest N°2 of the rare American Expeditionnary Force transportable lab . This was issued to Genral Persing Forces in 1918 after the Doughboys suffered severe losses from Dissentria, Typhus but especially from the deadly Flu Pandemic. evey army was fitted with a full set of nine boxes and only about 300 were eventually made. I suppose tha tmost having been used and contaminated were destroyed or abondonned after the AEF left Europe. This box was apparently recycled by a farmer for storage and saved. All I did was some cleaning, changing one leather strap and restoring someof the paint wher eit had faded.
It even has his complete AEF label with contents inside. It goes from a foldable stool to foreceps, a bucket , bottles etc....

I wonder how many complete ones have survived. The only one Isaw is a 1928 picture from the Surgeon general who is charge of the Programm in 1918. without his publishing of a book about this, Iwould never have found what this was.

 

More details: chest 2 is the second one left on the lower rank .


http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/adminamerexp/chapter11.html

 

Blimey Skip...I don't do the meorabilia thing....but can see the history and attraction of that....Brilliant find..bet your chuffed to pieces....

 

Yes, it was a hard time to bring back , big, dirty and heavy and no place for storage. but I wasn't going to ge that piece of history get lost, was I? I'm quite proud to have this piece of history at home now. Mrs Skipper wasn't too happy with it, not only because of the size, but because of the dramatic stories that it witnessed. I'd be interested to find out if any other has actually survived, let alone a complete set with content.
My box had two drawers and a compartment and some oblject were fixed with leather straps.

 

Why do wives not understand ww2 is more important than the garden...I'll understand one day....well done Skip..I'm sure you'll be getting lots of interest from the usual parties...Even I am impressed at that box...

 

Thanks Urgh, I will try and find out more about the British Baird and Tatlock cie which had the contract for the contents. They seem to be an ancestor of Merck (absorbed in 1987)

see here

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Baird_and_Tatlock_(London)

 

and a 1926 dated picture of the factory at Walthamstow



http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw017344?gazetteer=Waltham%20Forest&ADMIN_AREA=Waltham%20Forest&ref=47

 

Blimey one of those companines later built my old house in Northampton...Tarmac...I thought it was them..Amazing.

 

Yes, but where would I put my Fallschirmjäger container then? As to a visit , all you would have to do is to buy a plane ticket and make it all the way here

 

That's where the recycled crates went :waving:

 

Don't think the new owners would like the ww2 forum time team diggers knocking on their door somehow....

 

I usually convince Mrs Skipper by telling her I'll trade some large boxes for small relics and that she'll gain space . Of course it doesn't always work . :i_surrender:

 

There might be someone you could reach through this link that would know about other survivors:
http://history.amedd.army.mil/

 

That's the first site I visited to find very useful information. Post 3 with the picture and the link comes from there.

 

Fantastic find... I worked in the 5-ton trailer version during Vietnam.

 

Thanks , are modern versionS also divided in numbered chests? What I like about this one is to have a bit of the AEF. I was found in a barn in central France , not far from where the Americans had a hug depot in 1918. I suppose it was left behind after WWI

 

I've corresponded with the people at a couple of military museums and they were quite helpful. Not saying you'll have the same luck but there was a contact tab on that page I believe. Hopefully it hasn't been disabled. ...