I was attracted to a rather nice comb-jointed mahogany box at a car boot sale, which I thought might come in handy to house a project. In this household, such items go under the generic term of ‘yet more clutter’, but at £3.00, I couldn’t resist it! On opening the lid I discovered that it was an ‘Electro Convulsive Therapy’ machine - an electric shock machine, which is strapped to the luckless patient’s head, who is then subjected to a series of shocks in the hope that it may cure their depression. The mere thought of my being subjected to such treatment were I down in the dumps would, I’m sure, have an immediate and sustained effect upon my disposition, which I think would cheer me up no end, rendering the treatment quite unnecessary.
I’ve discovered that the firm that made it is still in business, though the machines they sell these days are much more sophisticated. That said, among the disposable accessories that the firm still markets are ‘mouth gags’ in packs of 100, to cushion the effect of patients clenching their teeth when subjected to electric shocks. It conjures up an image of forum member Duke Nukem’s avatar!
I’ve no doubt that this sort of treatment has always had its sceptics and adherents, but believe that advances in psychiatry and the development of anti-depressant drugs has resulted in it largely falling out of favour.
It won’t surprise anyone to know that I’ve resisted the temptation to strap it to myself to see if it still works, and looking at the components, it’s difficult to see exactly how it does work. There’s a largish transformer and a smaller one, and a small circuit board with a few resistors and a diode, but as far as I can tell, nothing which would generate an HT low current spiky waveform. That said, the front panel does show two waveform legends on a switch, both appear to be spiky half waves – one with a step in the rise and fall spikes. There’s a spring loaded ‘intensity control’ based towards ‘off’, which on closer examination consists of a bank of perhaps 2 Watt wirewound resistors in what amounts to a sort of stepped potentiometer. It has its mains lead and output lead, though no electrodes, which as I recall from old films, was rather like a bath-cap. Hopefully, the luckless patient on the receiving end of this device was under a general anaesthetic.
It’s evocative of something that the CIA might use in Gitmo as an aid to ‘coercive interrogation’ of suspects. As I’m allergic to pain, I’d soon be singing like a canary!
I’ve sent an e-mail to the firm that made it, to see if they can enlighten me as to when it was made. [Update: They had no info on it].
I note that it was the ‘MK3’ and wonder what features and benefits it had which were lacking in the Mk1 and Mk2!
I've attached a few pics. (The box is about nine inches square and six inches high).
David
I’ve discovered that the firm that made it is still in business, though the machines they sell these days are much more sophisticated. That said, among the disposable accessories that the firm still markets are ‘mouth gags’ in packs of 100, to cushion the effect of patients clenching their teeth when subjected to electric shocks. It conjures up an image of forum member Duke Nukem’s avatar!
I’ve no doubt that this sort of treatment has always had its sceptics and adherents, but believe that advances in psychiatry and the development of anti-depressant drugs has resulted in it largely falling out of favour.
It won’t surprise anyone to know that I’ve resisted the temptation to strap it to myself to see if it still works, and looking at the components, it’s difficult to see exactly how it does work. There’s a largish transformer and a smaller one, and a small circuit board with a few resistors and a diode, but as far as I can tell, nothing which would generate an HT low current spiky waveform. That said, the front panel does show two waveform legends on a switch, both appear to be spiky half waves – one with a step in the rise and fall spikes. There’s a spring loaded ‘intensity control’ based towards ‘off’, which on closer examination consists of a bank of perhaps 2 Watt wirewound resistors in what amounts to a sort of stepped potentiometer. It has its mains lead and output lead, though no electrodes, which as I recall from old films, was rather like a bath-cap. Hopefully, the luckless patient on the receiving end of this device was under a general anaesthetic.
It’s evocative of something that the CIA might use in Gitmo as an aid to ‘coercive interrogation’ of suspects. As I’m allergic to pain, I’d soon be singing like a canary!
I’ve sent an e-mail to the firm that made it, to see if they can enlighten me as to when it was made. [Update: They had no info on it].
I note that it was the ‘MK3’ and wonder what features and benefits it had which were lacking in the Mk1 and Mk2!
I've attached a few pics. (The box is about nine inches square and six inches high).
David
I saw something similar at Harpenden a few years ago and nearly bought it. By the time I had resolved to buy it somebody else had got there first.
