Pill-rollers to compete

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 22

Pill-rollers to compete

NZPA-AAP Melbourne Pills will roll at the Victorian town of Ballarat, west of Melbourne, on Wednesday, and the winner will be the roller with the best looking tablet. No, it’s not some sort of long distance event to see how far an aspirin will travel, but rather, a brief revival of the old pharmacists’ art of making drugs into pills. The organiser of the Australia and New Zealand Pharmaceutical Societies conference, Mr Reg Weller, said up to 100 pharmacists from the conference, being held in Melbourne, were expected to try their hand at Sovereign Hill.

The art of pill-rolling fell into disuse in the mid-1950s when machines took over. Mr Weller, an old gun at the powder game, said the contestants would be supplied with the pill mass, made of powder and a binding agent. They would have to roll it into a long pipe and use a cutting machine to divide it into equal portions.

The art comes in when these cylindrical pieces are rolled into tablets. The winner, who must roll without the benefit of the glossy talc pharmacists once used to finish off their product, will be the pillrojler with the best looking pill.