Looking medical catalogs from the 1960's and 1970's from the following
companies: Austenal, Howe Sound Company, Vitallium, Howemet
Corporation and Howmedica Inc. This is for medical research only - not
litigation.

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Request for Question Clarification by nancylynn-ga on 27 Sep 2003 09:51 PDT

Hello:

I'm attempting to answer your question, but am having some difficulty.

Could you please list some of the products made by the aforementioned
companies? It's possible vintage catalog and magazine sites are
listing catalogs according to product names, not company names.

Thanks,
nancylynn-ga

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Clarification of Question by squirt02-ga on 01 Oct 2003 12:46 PDT

I was able to locate some products manufactured by Austenal and
Vitallium.  These products include:
Bone plates, bone screws, McLaughlin Intertrochanteric Appliances,
Smith-Peterson Hip Cups, Austenal Surgical Instruments and Vitallium
spheres.

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Request for Question Clarification by nancylynn-ga on 03 Oct 2003 14:49 PDT

I'm very sorry. Even with your clarification, I can't locate any of
these companies' brochures from the '60s and '70s.

Please see my Sept. 27 comment to you, below. I still haven't heard
back from Austenal, which owns Vitallium. If you want to try them, you
can contact them via their Web site:
http://austenal.dentsply.com/

I agree with taxidriver-ga: your best bet may be to visit medical
school libraries, which sometimes archive company brochures.
Otherwise, you'll have to hope that some of these companies have extra
copies of vintage catalogs that they're willing to sell to you.

When contacting companies, you can first ask to speak to the "company
historian." That person *may* be able to direct you to a collector or
dealer who's willing to sell you some catalogs.

Regards,
nancylynn-ga

Sorry, but I haven't found any book dealers or collectibles sites that
have medical company pamphlets from the '60s and '70s.

I contacted a medical memorabilia expert who told me the prospects for
finding the materials you're seeking is dim -- these items are too
recent to be of interest or value to most collectors.

He suggested you contact the companies themselves to see if they have
these items and are willing to sell you any copies.

I've e-mailed Austenal, which owns Vitallium, and I will post their
response
here, when they reply.

You may want to contact Pfizer (former owner of Howmedica):

235 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017
Attn. Company Historian

and Stryker Corporation, which bought out Howmedica:

2725 Fairfield Road
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49002

and see if they have any '60s and '70s Howmedica catalogs they are
willing
to sell. They may at least be able to direct you to rare book dealers
who
carry these items.

I'm afraid haven't been able to find any information at all on Howemet
or the Howe Sound Company.

You can keep checking eBay's "Books" category, which includes
"catalogs" and "medical," at:
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/books.html??ssPageName=MOPS5:HMD02

The only thing I did find that might be of interest to you is the book
VITALLIUM MOULD ARTHROPLASTY FOR OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE HIPJOINT, by A.
Jakobsen (MacMillan: 1957). You can order it through Second Time
Books.

Go to:
http://www.secondtimebooks.com/
and type "Vitallium" into "title" or "keyword" and the book will come
up.

Second Time also has an "offline" search form you can fill out and
e-mail into the store. They will notify you if  they
can locate the items you're seeking:
http://www.secondtimebooks.com/?page=shop/want_form&CLSN_777=1064666153777e4fef92ae5e28d5310b

Regards,
nancylynn-ga

Try the Special Collections department at the UMDNJ Library of the
Health Sciences on the Newark campus.
http://www.umdnj.edu/librweb/speccoll/guide.html
They have a large ephemera collection that may be useful.
The librarian is an excellent resource and involved with the NJ
Medical History Society. NJ is home to some of the companies you're
seeking info on, so it's a good place to start.

If this helps, feel free to donate your question fee to the library.

Regards,

Taxidriver