Tucker's Violet Ray Machine

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Date:1900 - 1925 (c.)

Description:

A Tucker's Violet Ray machine. It consists of a brown wooden box with a metal latch. The interior of the box is lined with blue velvet and contains two switches and five glass attachment. One of the attachments is shaped for the eyes and one looks like a comb. Treatment machines like this one which harnessed the properties of Ultra-Violet light would have been used at the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa.

In 1924 Percy Hall wrote in his book, Ultra-Violet Rays in the Treatment and Cure of Disease, that 'the power of the ultra-violet rays to cure surgical tuberculosis and rickets, to hasten the cure of wounds, and improve the general health of weakly children has been abundantly established.'

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Donor ref:LEAMG : M4682.2008.2.1 (61/28488)

Source: Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

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