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A rumour I had heard a long time ago was that Dr. McCoy's small medical devices in The Original Series were actually Swedish salt shakers.

Example from the Star Trek photo club

Are there any statements corroborating this?

lofidevops
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Praxis
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2 Answers2

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Yes, they were.

The following excerpt from an article quotes Gene Roddenberry himself (via the authoritative book The Making of Star Trek) as saying:

[Feinberg] went out and bought a selection of very exotic-looking salt shakers. It was not until after he brought them in and showed them to me that I realized they were so beautifully shaped and futuristic that the audience would never recognize them as salt shakers. I would either have to use 20th Century salt shakers or I would have to have a character say “See, this is a salt shaker.” So I told Irving to go down to the studio commissary and bring me several of their salt shakers, and as he turned to go, I said “However, those eight devices you have there will become Dr. McCoy’s operating instruments.” For two years now, the majority of McCoy’s instruments in Sick Bay have been a selection of exotic salt shakers, and we know they work, because we’ve seen them work. Not only has he saved many a life with them but it’s helped keep our prop budget costs low...

(Source)

The author of the article, having done more research, concludes that Roddenberry's recollection was "slightly off" and that exactly two of the instruments were salt shakers while the rest were constructed by the prop team to resemble those two.

Finally, William Shatner himself mentions that the salt shakers were of Swedish origin in his 2002 book Star Trek: I'm Working on That:

...or how Bones was supposed to perform medical magic by waving weird gadgets (Swedish salt shakers actually) over damaged bodies.

(Source)

fez
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Praxis
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    You asked and answered your own question? – iMerchant Jul 03 '16 at 19:23
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    @iMerchant : Indeed. It's explicitly encouraged by StackExchange. When you're posting a question, you have the option to answer your question at the same time. The rationale is that, if you had a question that you now have an answer for, then you should share your newfound knowledge instead of not posting at all. :-) – Praxis Jul 03 '16 at 19:26
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    Also referenced in Shatner's Star Trek: Memories with essentially the same story of repurposed prop salt shakers. – FuzzyBoots Jul 04 '16 at 02:00
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    +1 for very well researched and fascinating self Q/A – Often Right Jul 04 '16 at 03:58
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    @Praxis, sometimes. http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/9919/is-it-possible-to-ask-for-moderators-to-check-if-a-user-has-abnormally-downvoted#comment28424_9919 But, personally that was a great find, thanks for the info. – KyloRen Jul 04 '16 at 08:51
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    @Praxis: I'd say answering your own question is appropriate when you've done research since you asked your question and are coming back - at a later time to report your findings. You seem to have answered your question at about the same time you answered it, making it more of a blog post than a question-and-answer. I'm not sure that should really be appropriate. – einpoklum Jul 04 '16 at 19:00
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    @einpoklum Take it up with the entirety of Stack Exchange. It's a completely accepted practice. Hell, when you're posting a question, there's a "I'm going to self-answer this" checkbox. It adds knowledge to the network, what's the problem? – Chris Hayes Jul 04 '16 at 20:28
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    @einpoklum From It's OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions, "it is OK to ask, and answer, your own question on a relevant Stack Exchange site. To be crystal clear, it is not merely OK to ask and answer your own question, it is *explicitly encouraged*". – Oriol Jul 05 '16 at 00:48
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    Plus it's a great way to get yourself a bunch of reputation points..... – L0j1k Jul 05 '16 at 02:54
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    @L0j1k Only if you write a good question and a good answer. – SevenSidedDie Jul 05 '16 at 05:52
  • @Oriol: Just don't complain when I ask and answer "How much wood would a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" – einpoklum Jul 05 '16 at 08:46
  • This is a fine out-of-universe answer, but it's not clear from the question whether the OP is asking if the medical instruments were Swedish salt shakers in universe or out of universe. – user14111 Jul 05 '16 at 11:37
  • @Praxis - Thanks to all these comments for clearing this up. I've seen self-answered questions that were downvoted because they were self-answered before. So I was confused. – iMerchant Jul 05 '16 at 12:50
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The Swedish salt shakers used – from what I've seen online – had orange and green wooden lower bodies and conical metal upper parts.
Swedish Salt Shakers

Edlothiad
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Ken Masterson
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