Tour the Turn of the Century Electrotherapy Museum (Video)

Since he was a teenager, Jeff Behary's been interested in the work of Nikola Tesla, and has been collecting antique electric devices of a particular kind: ones that send electricity through the human body to effect medical benefits, many of which do so with the aid of Tesla coils. Tesla's not the only inventor involved, of course, but his influence overlapped and widely influenced the golden age of electrotherapy. Behary's day job as a machinist means he has the skills to rehabilitate and restore these aging beasts, too, along with a growing family of related devices. He's assembled them now, in West Palm Beach, Florida, into the Turn of the Century Electrotherapy Museum. This is a museum of my favorite kind: home-based and intimate, but with serious depth. Though it's open only by appointment, arranging a visit there is worth it, whether you're otherwise part of the Tesla community or not. Behary knows his collection inside and out, with the kind of deep knowledge it takes to fabricate replacement parts and revamp the internal wiring. The devices themselves are accessible, with original and restored pieces up close and personal — you need to be mindful about which ones are humming and crackling at any given moment. (There's also an archive with books, papers, and other effects relating to Tesla and other electric pioneers, not to mention glowing tubes that predate the modern vacuum tube, and the oldest known surviving Tesla coils, recovered from beneath their maker's Boston mansion. Electrotherapy is the organizing principle, but not the extent of this assembly.) And while Behary isn't fooled by all the therapeutic claims made by some machines' makers about running current through your limbs or around your body, he also doesn't discount them all, either, and points out that some of them really do affect the body as claimed. Yes, he's tried most of the machines himself, though he admits he's never dared taking the juice of his personal Tesla-powered electric chair. View the first video for a tour of part of this astounding collection; the second video is an interview with Jeff Behary.

Comments

Scientology, anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now where is my E-meter?

Re:Scientology, anyone?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Now where is my E-meter?

Just behind your Violet Wand.

Re:Scientology, anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually tried that in the mall one time. I observed that you could control the meter based on how hard you squeezed the metal cylinders. I mentioned that to the person giving the test and she said "don't do that" and I countered with something along the lines of "If I don't do it consciously, I'll do it subconsciously" and I think she could tell that I wasn't going to fall for their tricks. Not that I haven't been bamboozled on some occasions; but it wasn't happening this time.

Re:Scientology, anyone?

[RobertLTux]

i think that what you are doing is changing the capacitance of the circuit so yah its a bit iffy.

Re:Scientology, anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just the contact resistance, which for skin can vary a lot depending on pressure. Play with an ohm meter, and if your hands are not too wet, you can get usually anywhere between 100k and a couple megaohms. I think the e-meters are just measuring the resistance or conduction between the two cylinders. In which case, it would be amusing if you could apply a small voltage across them, small enough to not hurt of course and possibly be from just a battery with leads connected to your wrists under a long-sleeved shirt.

Talk about a Turn of the (21st) Century website!

[Ann O'Nymous-Coward]

Eye watering background, check! Terribly ill-advised fonts, check!

It's even part of a Web Ring! I haven't seen one of those since Geocities kicked the bit bucket.

Old tech

[Quiet_Desperation]

Pfft. Electricity.

Orgone energy is where it's at today. The universal life energy comes to us free from the screaming void of space to help us control weather and cure many private male issues.

Re:Talk about a Turn of the (21st) Century website

[Ossifer]

I wonder when people are going to stop implying that "turn of the century" refers to exactly two turns of the century ago...

Re:Talk about a Turn of the (21st) Century website

[idontgno]

I was just amazed we still had electrotherapy clinics as of only a dozen years ago.

Now I'm not. Color me disappointed.

Hell yeah.

[durgledoggy]

Violet wands, about 17:00 1st vid. Biggish fetish market for them.

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[Hatta]

Congratulations on discovering the placebo effect. Let us know when you can show a statistically significant effect from a properly controlled(blinded, randomized) experiment.

What a coincidence

[NonFerrousBueller]

Wow, what timing. Just discovered this museum an hour ago as this morning I was given a Cox-Cavendish Galvanic Battery (I think) by my physiotherapist and was doing some Googling about it. What a great site, though it does have me wanting to start a new collecting hobby. Great to see that someone who collects these also opens his collection to others, documents it, and puts it on the web. If only more collectors would do the same.

Re:Truly the dark ages of psychology.

[kulaga]

Unfortunately it's still going on today. Google Electroconvulsive Therapy or ECT. Apparently it can be a very effective temporary treatment. However, I still shudder when I think of observing a session during Nursing school 10 years ago. Very sterile and anesthetic is used, but still disturbing.

Turn of the century?

[Trogre]

I wasn't aware electrotherapy was in common use in 2000AD?

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[nido]

Someone like yourself once asked Mr. Cayce how he could prove he was real. Cayce responded that it wasn't his job to prove anything, and asked the questioner how he could convince himself.

Similarly, I have NO need to "show[] a statistically significant event" to you - you'd just find a reason to explain it away. I simply offer my experience in the hopes that maybe someone will find it useful.

Re:Truly the dark ages of psychology.

[drkim]

Unfortunately it's still going on today. Google Electroconvulsive Therapy or ECT.

...shouldn't that be GECT?

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[drinkypoo]

I have NO need to "show[] a statistically significant event" to you

Then why did you post here in the first place, where we demand such things? Why don't you take that stuff to naturalnews where someone might care?

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[squiggleslash]

But we're not going to find it useful because you assume it's not your job to convince us.

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but the problem with posting a "I tried it and it worked" testimonial about some concept that seems shakey, when there's a documented phenomenon called "the placebo effect", is that, well, we'll assume it's the placebo effect that caused you to write "I tried it and it worked" to begin with, assuming we don't doubt your sincerity.

There is no onus on you to prove your case, unless you want to convince others of your position. As long as there are more rational explanations for your testimonial than the conclusions you draw, we're more apt to believe those explanations over your own. That's human nature, and it means you possibly need to drop the "I have no need to explain myself if I'm trying to make a point" position.

I don't expect everyone to be convinced by my view of the world, but when my opinions veer away from the provable, I rarely mention them, and if I do, it's merely so that others can understand me, not so that others can share my opinion.

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[nido]

..., where we demand such things?

drinkypoo != 'we'

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[nido]

I thought that the article should have an on-topic comment, so that interested people could have some points to look up if they were so inclined. I prefaced my comment with the bit about 'vitalism haters' to acknowledge that most slashdot users won't be interested.

..., but when my opinions veer away from the provable...

People tend to be wedded to their belief systems, thus it is very challenging to 'prove' anything to their satisfaction.

Re:where there's smoke, there's fire

[drinkypoo]

I am part of "we" and we do demand that you have some basis for your wild-ass claims. Anyone who says different is selling something. Something not worth having. Like your opinion.