JF Ptak Science Books: Electro-LUXurious 8: Electrical Medical Cane, 1899

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The History of Ideas Blog by John Ptak is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Electro-LUXurious 8: Electrical Medical Cane, 1899

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

This is the eight in a new series of posts on interesting, early applications of electricity, most of which are taken from the archives of the U.S. Patent Office. Unlike the general post in this blog, many of the Electro-LUXurious post images and documentation can be presented without commentary.

I thought at first when I found this "electric cane" that there would be a light source or something embedded in the hanle. There is a small light bulb inside the handle, but there are no lenses, no glass; just metal caps. It turns out that this is a medical cane, an electrical unit with brass or copper barrels to be held in the hands or applied to various areas of the body for electrical stimulation.