Happy happy happy all the time shock treatment, I'm doing fine

August 11, 2008 7:54 PM

I found an antique electro-therapeutic apparatus at a thrift shop. Now what?

I haven't been able to find any real information from googling. I brought it to an antique shop but they had no information about value or resources for finding a buyer. They estimated the date to turn of the century by looking at the hinges and the dovetails of the box and the cotton insulation and fine copper wiring. I have no idea if this is accurate.

It's kind of creepy to have sitting around but I am not sure if I want to sell it. I'd like to know the value or if a museum would be interested. At this point I don't have money to invest in an appraisal. Since we do live in LA, of course the apparatus already has a movie offer. I'd like to know if it should be insured and for how much.

There are pictures at the flickr link in my profile. I've also transcribed the instructions from the inside label. Maybe the language would be helpful is dating it?

posted by simbiotic to grab bag (9 comments total)

How about just posting the links?
posted by orthogonality at 7:58 PM on August 11, 2008

Here they are.
posted by phunniemee at 8:00 PM on August 11, 2008

Thanks phunniemee. I didn't know the protocol for linking to photos.
posted by simbiotic at 8:03 PM on August 11, 2008

Get in touch with Bob McCoy at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices.
posted by carmicha at 8:11 PM on August 11, 2008

Your particular model isn't at The Bakken Library, but there are some similar devices with dates.
posted by tellurian at 8:45 PM on August 11, 2008

They are listed on Ebay all the time. Here is one and another more like yours. I think they go for less than 100 dollars.
posted by lee at 9:25 PM on August 11, 2008

My boyfriend has various gadgets like this, all bought on ebay pretty cheaply. Electric therapy was a very popular quack treatment in the late 19th and early 20th century, and spawned countless devices that basically were designed to give people mild (and not-so-mild) shocks in the name of curing every ailment, real and imagined. They're fun to collect, but not necessarily worth a lot of money.
posted by scody at 9:59 PM on August 11, 2008

Since scody mentioned that they aren't too hard to come by, how about loading a big mp3 player with a bunch of music (whatever you feel fits the theme/feel/spirit of the device). Then open up the bottom of the thing. Figure out how to wire the 3 big buttons to be On/Off, Play, Next to the mp3 player. Then make that slider thing be the volume control. Then have speaker wire going out the bottom into your stereo/speakers/whatever.

How to do these things? idunno. But it would be cool.
posted by ian1977 at 4:08 AM on August 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the great answers everyone!
posted by simbiotic at 8:19 AM on August 12, 2008