I have two pictures of what I think are chemistry related but could be
electricity related sets.  I put them at this web site: 
http://www.phamilyofphans.com/otherpics.htm
I would like to find out 1)if they are a modern day version of some of
Nikola Tesla's work and 2)what are they? A description is that they
are consist of glass/pyrex flasks and other odd shapes.  Some have
metal ends.  They hook into some plastic like thing and you can plug
them in.   Am I able to provide the pictures electronically?  They are
not mine and I have never plugged them in.

Thanks,
karen Weldon

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 14 May 2004 09:10 PDT

There's a pretty clear picture of the violet ray device at the link here:

http://www.patented-antiques.com/images/WEB%20Sale%20Catagories/Scientific%20Sales/Science%20Written/quack_med/violetray_bigbox.jpg

It sure does bear a striking resemblance to your, er, thing.

Thanks to ac67-ga for pointing this out.  Let me know what you think.


pafalafa-ga

Dear kindofphun-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

I showed your photograph to a Professor of a well-known university in
California (he wishes to remain anonymous). He who also happens to be
the curator of a Scientific Instrument Museum and was able to quickly
identify the items in your photograph. He instructed me how to search
for the items on Google, which I did with significant success. I will
explain the search terms later at the bottom of this page so you can
recreate the search if necessary:

What you have here is definitely one of the many versions of what has
come to be known in the museum world as a ?Quack Medical Device?, more
specifically a ?Violet Ray Generator? (sometimes called an ?ultra
violet device?). Your example is probably and incomplete set and only
PART of a larger set of equipment and instruments that originally came
in that case or a similar one, and probably date to the early 1900?s
(perhaps even as late as the 1930?s).

The large cylinder is a voltage coil, probably made of bakelite, and
the glass tubings (which sometimes contained a gas) were commonly
inserted into the coil to provide a capture medium from which the
?violet rays? could be projected upon, seen and used. Following
Teslas? work many ?inventions? based in part on the new and often
little-understood concepts Tesla perfected with his Tesla Coil and
other devices flooded the medical and technical field.  The Professor
I spoke to said that the device may be functional but warned that
plugging it in could be quite dangerous as some of these instruments
were later found to have emitted potentially life-threatening levels
of radiation (x-rays).

As I mentioned the construction of your device is only one of many
designs that came out during this era of experimental devices that
often came with erroneous and outlandish claims of being able to cure
a host of diseases, ailments and maladies.  Here are some examples of
similar Quack Medical Devices

VIOLET RAY GENERATORS
http://www.mtn.org/quack/devices/uv.htm

VIOLET WANDS
http://home.earthlink.net/~demimondaine/pix.html


Other examples can be seen using GOOGLE IMAGES:

?violet quack?
http://images.google.com/images?q=violet+quack&ie=UTF-8&hl=en

?violet ray?
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=violet+ray+

?violet wands?
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=violet+wands



As for the value of your items, well they are relatively plentiful I
suppose in comparison to other scientific oddities of the era. These
items can be frequently purchased on ebay for a few dollars to
(rarely) perhaps a couple of hundred.

LINKS COURTESY OF EBAY
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4069&item=3291533234&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4069&item=3291740045&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4069&item=3292392233&rd=1
(This one, by the way, looks very much like yours)


I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

VIOLET RAY 

VIOLET WANDS

QUACK MEDICAL 

ULTRAVIOLET RAY

Thank you very much for a reliable answer and the quick response.

This is actually a "medical" device.  See this website:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3cw3z/vrays.html.  In particular,
not the link on the left marked Electrodes, which shows close ups of
the glass attachments.  This was a device which used combination of
electricity, magnetism, UV light and ozone to claim to cure a myriad
of medical problems.  It may still be in occasional use as an
"alternative" medical device, but hasn't really been shown to help
with anything.

Oh, by the way, yes they are based on Tesla's work, as described on
this site.  And in the comment above, it should have read "In
particular, note the link..." , not "not the link..."