Antique Electrotherapy Machines

[Electrogoth]

Hi,

I'm looking for some info on an apparatus commonly known as a violet ray device, which is a quack medical instrument used to deliver static shocks to the skin via glass vacuum tubes (Simalar to Tessla/crooks coils).

I have 1 remaining that I can't fix as I can't see anything obviously wrong with it; can anyone supply a circuit diagram? I have the information to build the primary and secondary coils, but am unsure how the vibrating switch works, or how it should all go together. The handset is proven OK through testing on a working unit, as is the glass probe. It seems either the vibrating switch isn't working, or that there is a break in the internal circuit somewhere...

It runs on mains and converts the mains current into a high voltage, low amplitude direct current which flows through the vacuum tube causing it to glow violet and emit static sparks across gaps of 1-2 millimeters to anything placed within that small distance.

Hope ya can help..!

 

[Klaus]

We have one of these here at the uni, it was used to scare the hell out of Physiotherapy students in past years, can't legally do that any more .
Its somewhere in the store room and should still work unless somebody broke it :wink: I'll have a look later on and see how it works, never had it apart so far.