Reply With Quote"Mobile" telegraphy set? For hooking into exterior telegraph wires? Glass jar could be a cell.
Maybe for railroad use.
Any suggestions to what this and what is was for?
"Mobile" telegraphy set? For hooking into exterior telegraph wires? Glass jar could be a cell.
Maybe for railroad use.
Electrotherapy device for treating sports 'injuries'?
My grandfather had something similar we used to play with.
Agree glass bottle could be a cell.
Here's some others http://www.ebay.com/itm/Early-1900s-Battery-Operated-Shock-Quack-Box/371991345163
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Medi...e/152612853187
Last edited by Kingstepper; 13th July 2017 at 11:36.
What an excellent term, a "Quack Box".
I reckon it's a quack box.
Electroshock therapy kit?
I say ! Quack box :D
Excellent work guys !
It feels so funny to be guessing at the nature of a man made thing. I dunno, just feels a bit weird. My best bet is that it has to do with telegraph, though honestly my first thought was a thing from Dirk Gently
I agree, electro therapy device. Google image search shows a few different types https://fi.pinterest.com/pin/304907837244123259/
Is it a speedmaster box?
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Electrotherapy device I think - probably muscle stimulation
Great for nervous diseases. Ideal for those visiting London. Probably.
Originally Posted by Kingstepper
Yes, I'm 99.99% certain that is exactly what it is. I've seen these before - the padded ends to the wands would be dampened, and the "patient" would receive an electric current to treat any one of pretty much any ailment you could think of.
It similar in principle to violet ray that was also popular around the same time.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Ro...IAAOSwPe1T65WW
This was from an era when the properties of electricity were little understood, but a current was imagined to be beneficial for pretty much anything. "Quack" doctors, often at travelling fairs, would have these and apply the electricity for a small fee. Usually it would do nothing, but the patient would be told to wait a few days to get the full benefit. Of course, by then the fair had long moved on.
Headache - apply it to the head, knee pain, apply it to the knee... anywhere really.
A hundred plus years ago, before the advent of common painkillers that we take for granted, and very primitive medical treatments that still owed much to the middle ages in many senses, people were often genuinely desperate for any kind of relief. Hence the prevalence of tonics and treatments that had little or no benefit, and many that were actually very dangerous.
It is hard for us to imagine just how dibiliating many minor ailments that we could treat from Boots the Chemist would have been.
So clever my foot fell off.
What's the difference between that and a TENS machine?
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
Basic principle is sort of the same I think, but doesn't the TENS use pulses? I also think you are supposed to use them regularly to have some therapeautic effect.
There is clearly some basic science behind the quack box that has a degree of validity, but I doubt a single application would have anything other than a very temporary effect.
However, I am no doctor, and haven't ever used one.
So clever my foot fell off.
About 80 years of development I would think.
I've had mine for years. Use to give my school mates electric shocks with the gizmo
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There's a thriving, albeit niche, market for these sort of devices among the S&M community, particularly the violet wand variety. A working set can go for good money on ebay.
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