Since electricity was more available in the twentieth century, manufacturers felt free to use their imagination. They aggressively promoted devices that used indirect current for use in the home as well as in doctors’ offices where large equipment such as cages and chairs could be found.

This unusual set of medical electric chair, cabinet, and wallplate was made by the Wappler Company (ca. 1930). Wappler went on to be a major manufacturer of urology equipment.

This is another type of medical electric chair with electric footplate by the Davis Electric Company, Parkersburg, West Virginia (1904)

Steam cabinets were often found in health clubs; this one would have been found in a physician's office with electric chair included for advanced treatment.

This is another type of electric cabinet, though without steam.

Heat by way of short wave diathermy was another popular way in which physicians stretched the limits of early discoveries in electricity. This illustration is from Diathermy and Its Application to Pneumonia (1923) by Harry Eaton Stewart, MD

This Hogan device was manufactured by the McIntosh Electrical Corporation and was named after an employee, Mr. George Hogan. It contained a large and very effective Tesla coil.

This is another variety of a high frequency device.

This small set by the McIntosh Electric Corporation, Chicago (ca. 1930) was used by physicians with any number of hand-held attachments to treat various parts of the body.

This illustration is from Practical Index to Electro-Therapy (1925) by Joseph Waddington, MD, CM

rollers, brushes, and attachments for the treatment of the eye, rectum, prostate, and vagina

Guillaume BA Duchenne, MD (1806-1875) was one of the pioneers of electrotherapy and a founder of modern neurology. In 1862, he published two atlases demonstrating various expressions that could be produced by stimulating different facial muscle groups.

an ENT machine adapted for other types of therapy

a small home device for high frequency therapy

This very intimidating machine would have been very impressive to perspective patients (adding to a very impressive placebo effect).

long-path Air-Spaced Plate application to the sinuses with the Liebel-Flarsheim diathermy unit (ca. 1930)

Some physicians ventured into the dangerous practice of mixing water and electricity in their treatment regimens. This illustration is from Rational Hydrotherapy (1902) by J.H. Kellogg, MD

another illustration of the mixture of water and electricity from A System of Instruction in X- Ray Methods and Medical Uses of Light, Hot-Air, Vibration and High-Frequency Currents (1902) by S.H. Monell, MD

from Scientific American, Jan 1916

Elias Smith of Normal, Illinois was the first to produce electromagnetic body coils (1869), but the most commercially successful was the I-ON-A-CO (I Own A Company) body coil, an eighteen inch insulated coil of wire connected to house current. It was nicknamed the “magic horse collar” and was worn around the neck or waist. Gaylord Wilshire of Los Angeles developed the I-ON-A-CO and charged $55 each, though he never reaped the financial benefit of his “discovery” since he died of kidney failure in New York not long after its production. Wilshire, a multifaceted individual, was for a time involved in real estate speculation just outside of Los Angeles, and is remembered today by his famous namesake, the Wilshire Boulevard.

Booklets accompanying the belts always contained testimonials, and following are two examples written for the Theronoid belt, an imitation of Wilshire’s invention.

Personal appearance has been of interest to patients from the earliest recorded history when Egyptian physicians treated baldness with “fat of lion, fat of hippopotamus, fat of cat, fat of crocodile, fat of ibex, fat of serpent, are mixed together and the head of the bald person is anointed with them.” In the nineteenth century, manufacturers responded to the market by producing a number of devices to address the “medical problem” of hair loss powered by direct current, static electricity, magnetism, heat, and vibration.

The heating element in this simple device was a light bulb.

This complex instrument was purportedly used for the diagnosis and treatment of many medical conditions. It is a radionics device meaning it collected your diseased abnormal sine radio waves and then neutralized them thus providing a cure

This electro-shock machine was made famous for the treatment of various mental disorders in the movie One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. A similar device is still being used (effectively) for the treatment of depression.

This is a galvanic and sinusoidal wave foot and body therapy machine with the control box to generate galvanic or sinusoidal current applied to the foot electrodes: galvanic for urology, hemorrhoids, and gynecology problems with slow sinusoidal current for constipation, nervousness, muscles, insomnia, and headaches.