November 2, 2005
Medical marvels make history
Dean Junker shows collection of old medical equipment
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
A foray one day 11 years ago into a local antiques store launched Dean Junker on a new collection path: scientific and medical instruments.
The Rapid City resident had already collected antique music instruments for years, helped put together the Music House Museum's collection and forged a career repairing antique instruments. But a small glass tube handed to him by the proprietor of Miller's Antique Shop sparked a new passion.
"I've evolved from one field of collecting to another - it's a continuous learning process," said Junker. "His dad had bought it 40-50 years ago. It was before computers and we had to use the encyclopedia to look it up and see what it was: a Geisler tube."
Junker shared his vast knowledge and a portion of his collection of antique medical and scientific instruments Thursday evening during a meeting of the Grand Traverse Pioneer & Historical Society. Held at the Grand Traverse Heritage Center, the meeting drew 40 attendees.
Junker showed and demonstrated items that included a mounted prism, a static electricity generator, a gyroscope and a demonstration piece that showed the rotation of the Earth and that it stays on the same axis around the sun. These solid wooden pieces could be found in Victorian parlors 100-150 years ago, serving as entertainment in the era before radio and television.
"They are just a lot of fun to play around with," said Junker, who owns Music Machine Restorations. "People really enjoy them very much, it's a learning experience and fun at the same time. They are a window into the past."
Junker has found many of his pieces in out-of-the-way-closets or cupboards in labs at universities or colleges, purchasing items from more than 60 different institutions. He explained the Geisler Tube was the great-grandfather of neon and the Crooks Tube, another item he demonstrated, was the precursor of X-rays.
Besides their unusual functions, the instruments Junker demonstrated all had a timeless solidity to them, an air of loving craftsmanship not found in modern stainless steel and plastic.
"They have a high quality of workmanship - it was a time when the artists and craftspeople got together with scientists and created these, a very special era," he said. " I like to share this with people and get them out where the future generations can see these pieces again."
The Grand Traverse Pioneer & Historical Society hosts a regular series of educational programs during the school year with a goal of exciting and promoting an interest in local history. Topics for meetings are chosen usually through word of mouth, when a society member hears about an interesting historical figure or a current resident who has a passion for some aspect of history.
"We try to come up with a variety of things," said Bob Wilson, president of the society. "You can have lectures but I'd rather have a show and tell."
"We've got so many people who come up here from downstate, they might not know what this place is all about," he added of the region's history.
The next meeting of the Grand Traverse Pioneer & Historical Society is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, December 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Center. The program will be a publication celebration of "Grand Traverse Legends, Volume II: The Formative Years 1860-1880" by Bob Wilson. For more information or to confirm the date, contact the center at 995-0313 or Wilson at 933-3786.