There was no laboratory or research equipment when Carver first arrived at Tuskegee. Carver searched for castoffs. He used this rolling pin and grater to pulverize plant specimens. Many of these pieces of equipment were used over a span of thirty years, in his Milbank laboratory, and in his "last lab" at the Carver Museum.

"I went to the trash pile.and started my laboratory with bottles, old pint jars, and any other thing I found I could use."