Mystery Device Solved!
what is it?
Keeler’s online ‘What is it?’ competition invited entrants to identify a Mystery Device on the Keeler website for a chance to win a prize. The competition has now ended and Keeler can reveal that the device in the image is a Weiss Portable Faradic Battery from 1889!
This ‘quack’ medical instrument was an electrotherapy device built around an induction coil and claimed to cure a whole host of ailments and illnesses by discharging an electrical shock through the body! The device was designed to deliver a sharp electric shock, and it was believed that this jolt of electricity could treat a myriad of problems including cataracts, retinitis, hysteria, asthma and diseases of the brain, all at the doctor’s office.
Batteries were also sold for use in the home with extravagant claims that they could cure diseases and ailments like deafness, and loss of smell. Quite incredible to see how far science and healthcare has progressed!
Weiss’s showroom in Oxford Street at the time
Weiss’s showroom in Oxford Street at the time
