Vintage Antique Medical Quackery Renulife Violet Ray Lamp Kit Apothecary Science

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Fascinating stuff.Kit is nearly complete, you will receive all of the items shown. This is a beautiful kit in good condition. I plugged it in and determined that the unit probably is inoperative. No buzz, no humming, no violet rays. Maybe just a bit of corrosion, I don't know. The latch does not close tightly. One of the hinges is broken. The cord is in amazingly good shape, attachments are unbroken. The leather cover is dried and is becoming brittle. The wood is in pretty nice condition for its 97 year age. The graphics look great. The rotary switches move smoothly.Overall, this is an awesome set of violet ray tools. The blown glass attachments alone often command high prices at auction. This is a very cool set and is an instant conversation piece. These are getting really hard to find and this one is better than most. I hope you give this old medical quackery tool a great new home.According to Wikipedia:A violet ray is an antique medical appliance used during the early 20th century in the obsolete medical therapy called electrotherapy. Their construction usually feature a combination of a disruptive discharge coil with an interrupter to apply a high voltage, high frequency, and low current to the human body for therapeutic purposes.[1] Their basic construction was invented prior to 1900 by Nikola Tesla, who introduced their first prototypes at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Most of the antique violet rays in the US were produced before the Depression era and some of the larger US manufacturers of violet rays were Renulife, Fitzgerald and Fisher. Companies who manufactured violet ray devices, made many other types of electrical appliances as well, e.g. Star Electric, which also manufactured stock ticker machines. Many of the companies who were able to continue manufacturing violet rays after the depression, stopped making them due to World War II when they began manufacturing radio coils or other electrical components for the war instead.A typical violet ray device consisted of an ungrounded electrical control box that controlled the interrupter and which housed the magneto coil, and an attached bakelite or other handle housing which contained the high voltage coil and an insertion port for attachments. Glass evacuated tubes of varying shapes and for different therapeutic uses could be inserted into the bakelite handle to apply the resulting current to different parts of the body.Violet ray treatments were said to cure everything from lumbago to carbuncles. From an antique Master Violet Ray manual c. 1920 comes this treatment advice: Brain Fog - Use Applicator No. I over forehead and eyes. Also treat the back of head and neck with strong current in direct contact with the skin. Treat the spine and hold the electrode in the hand. Ozone inhalations for about four minutes are also of importance.For catarrh, this treatment was directed: Catarrh, Nasal - In this condition the Nasal Tube is used within the nose with a mild current within the nasal passage, two to five minutes on each side, followed by an application with the Surface Electrode externally over the area of the nose. Use Ozone Generator.Legal actions:During the 1940s and 1950s, makers of violet ray devices were subjected to numerous lawsuits and multiple actions by the US government including recalls, seizures, forfeitures and orders to have them destroyed.The last manufacturer of violet ray electrotherapy devices in the US was Master Electric. The company was subjected to a 1951 lawsuit in Marion, Indiana, and the devices were seized by the FDA.[9] While their manufacture was prohibited in the US by case law, violet ray electrotherapy devices are still manufactured by companies outside of the US. read more

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