Father's Teeth

Visitors at the Chicago's World's Fair this June will scarcely be able to miss one exhibit in the Hall of Science. Soldiers in Colonial uniforms will guard a case 18 in. square and 3 ft. high. The case will be made of bullet-proof steel. Its top will be made of plunder-proof, non-shatterable glass. It will be bolted to the concrete floor and weighted down with iron. A combination safe lock will guard its contents. Peering through the non-shatterable glass the sight-seer will see, fastened to a silver rod, George Washington's false teeth, the lower set dangling from the upper by the little gold springs which held them in his country's father's mouth.

Dean J. Ben Robinson of the University of Maryland Dental School, which has guarded Washington's dentures since 1875 and which sent them to Chicago last week, says that the teeth were probably used from 1792 until 1798. They were fashioned from ivory and gold by Dr. John Greenwood of New York who had considerable correspondence with the toothless President about them. Dr. Greenwood advised rubbing the ivories with a cedar stick or chalk if they got too dark from port wine. If they got light, he said, soak them in broth, liquor or porter.

A body of legend surrounds Washington's false teeth. The Stuart Athenaeum portrait, which the Washington family refused to accept, pictorially reports with great accuracy the distortion which the clumsy plates caused in the First President's face. Dr. Greenwood counseled filling with candle wax holes eroded in the teeth by mouth acids. Washington is said to have stopped at a blacksmith shop for repairs on one occasion. It is also said that the springs were likely to stick, setting the President's mouth agape if he opened it too wide.

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