The Early Electrotherapeutic Devices

Keywords: "Oudin resonator", Leyden Jar, D'Arsonval type, Tesla type, Historical Devices, The Rifle Device, Crant's, Lakhovsky's, Priore's, Dotto Ring, Hyperthermia, Rapsomanikis, Pulsed Heater, Abscess, Acne Rosacea-Vulgaris, Actinomycosis, Adenitis, to Varicose Ulcers, Warts, Writer's Cramp, Wry Neck, Electroporosity, bacteria, cancer, viruses, continuous wave (CW), damping waves (DW), Cancer Cure, degenerative diseases, AIDS,

(The following information is taken from the manual on
"High Frequency Currents" by Noble M. Eberhard, MD, PhD, DCL,
Fifth Edition, New Medicine Pub. Co, Chicago 1919).

The early Electrotherapeutic devices were based on the Leyden Jar condenser discharge.
They were mainly two types that of D'Arsonval type and that of Tesla. Both types were based on the same known principle of Tesla for high voltage, damping wave (DW), radio frequency generators, however, they differ in the output circuit. The Tesla type used a step up transformer - the Tesla coil to step up the voltage out-put as high as possible, however, limiting unavoidably the associated current to very low values. The D'Arsonval type on the other hand, provides a higher current at lower voltage, incorporating a different output circuit. The D'Arsonval type became more popular.

In applications, it became standard for both types of devices to use the so called "Oudin resonator". The Oudin resonator was a vacuum glass tube or a low pressure tube. This tube was connected to the output of these devices, producing corona discharges or static discharges - known as the "cold" fulguration spark which penetrated the glass and reached the patient's body.

The early Electrotherapeutic devices were made by big companies like Thompson-Plaster X-Ray Co., Inc., Leesburg, Virginia. They were very popular in almost every Hospital. Their applications are listed in Professor's Eberhard manual and occupy over 120 pages. The applications are presented in alphabetical order, from: Abscess, Acne Rosacea-Vulgaris, Actinomycosis, Adenitis, to Varicose Ulcers, Warts, Writer's Cramp, Wry Neck.

These devices, due to the damping nature of their oscillations, may be considered as pulsating and they are high peak power low average energy devices. They should perform on the same ideas exposed previously in this presentation and should excite intercellular activity, should increase Electroporosity of cells enhancing the in-and-out exchange of materials of the cell and eventually enhancing metabolism. The function of the Oudin low pressure tubes should be theorized to enhance the instantaneous intensity of the peak power of the oscillation, by independent corona oscillations occurring at the Oudin tube being excited by the main DW oscillations.

In table 1, we list the indications taken from Professors's Eberhard's book, which refers to about 200 cases.
The table below, as the rest of similar tables are given for comparison and scientific research only.
Table 1

In table 2, we list the indications taken from "The Fischer Diathermy Therapy book", published by H.G.Fischer, CO., Chicago, 1925, 1927 (B. H. G. Fischer Diathermy Machine, H. G. Fischer Co., Inc., 2323-37 Wabansia Avenue(company address in 1927), Chicago, IL), recommended using Fischer spark-type diathermy.

Below, are some quotes taken from the book Short Wave Diathermy by Tibor de Cholnoky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937):
Bacteria:
"Tribute should be paid to the numerous experiments of Haase and Schliephake and others, for their investigation of the effect of short waves on bacteria. They found that shortwave exposures kill bacteria at a lower temperature than does the hot-water bath. This might indicate, they believe, that there is, in addition to the heat effect, another effect as yet undetermined, inherent in the short-wave field, though they warn against drawing conclusions prematurely." (p. 29)
Reference to: Haase, W. and E. Schliephake,
"Verusche uber den Einfluss kurzer elektrischer Wellen auf das Wachstum von Bakterien."
Bietr. z. klin. Chir., 60 (1931), 133-58.
In vitro experiments conducted on:
Staphylococci, Streptococci, Bacillus Coli, Tubercle Bacillus, had some positive results, others were resistant to treatment.
Viruses (early consideration of immune system stimulation):
"Carpenter and Page pointed out that the increased heat generated in the body by short waves, established an environment that is in general unfavorable to the development of the virus. The heat ncreases the rate of those chemical processes which are concerned with the general defense mechanism of the body against the infectious agents." (p. 37)
Reference to:
Carpenter, C. M. and A. B. Page, "The production of fever in man by short radio waves."
Science, 71 (1930), 450-52.

The book Short Wave Diathermy by Cholnoky also gives information on following conditions that were treated using pulsed spark-type diathermies being used at that time. Cholnoky's book, refers to over 100 cases .
These are listed in Table 3.
Table 3

The conditions listed in Table 4 below, were taken from the book "Diathermy" by E. P. Cumberbatch (Baltimore: William Wood, 1937).

The Rife device,

The Crane device,

The Lakhovsky device,

The Priore device,

The Dotto Ring,

The Hyperthermia device,

The Rapsomanikis device,

The Pulsed Heaters.

Royal R. Rife was born in Elkhorn Nebraska. At the age of 25 in 1913 he arrived in San Diego. For 7 years, he traveled to Europe to investigate foreign laboratories for the USA government. Zeiss, a major German optical company, were among them, where Rife learned the art to make microscopes (He had been personally trained by Carl Zeiss). It was this period he learned his mechanical skills necessary to build instruments. He was fascinated by bacteriology and microscopes. He was never really in to electronic engineering. Rife's microscopes are well known and became a thrill for their assumed magnification. Not very much is known however, about the Rifes radio frequency machines. In 1920 he had built his first microscope and had managed to get his first frequency machine which was actually a Thompson-Plaster Electrotherapeutic device of the D'Arsonval type, equipped with the Oudin vacuum glass tubes (information communicated privately to the author by his assistant J. Crane and later confirmed by J. Flores, also one of the assistants). The results which are listed for Rife getting were: curing cancer, extinguishing organism, viruses, etc.

In 1912, the great inventor Lee De Forest discovered the celebrated triode vacuum tube capable to amplify, and produce continuous wave oscillations( CW). Damping waves are inappropriate for transmitting the human voice, music, sound or information which we now know that is possible with the continuous waves,(CW). Damping waves by their very nature carry noise sound which interferes adversely with any other sound or information that may be attempted to be transmitted with. In 1920, eight years later, the first continuous waves CW were broadcasted, initiating a new technology for telecommunications and radio, producing new Hertzian waves - the Continuous Waves - CW. Sound, music and picture were eventually broadcasted by a CW. However, fortunate had been the CW for radio and television, nevertheless, they had been the disaster of the Electrotherapeutic Devices.

Eventually, the new technology of CW, unfortunately entered also into the structure of the early Electrotherapeutic devices which replaced the Leyden Jars and the spark gaps with triode and tetrode vacuum tubes oscillators which produced continuous or non-interrupted oscillations. Nobody seemed to want DW. DW were considered primitive, inappropriate to carry sound, music and picture. Damped oscillations and waves (DW) were past history. Everybody was fascinated with the telecommunication potentials of the new waves and nobody (other than Rife) seem to had been aware of the biological significance of the old DW waves. The new technology bringing in the new reality of the undamped waves, or the continuous waves CW, initiated the era for the radio-telecommunications, radio and television; and eventually terminated the era of the Electrotherapeutic Devices.

Telecommunications today are based exclusively on CW carriers which most of the electronic engineers seem to know very well. Rife apparently followed the trend and was soon sympathetic towards the new technology of radio tubes. He managed to get a radio tube technology CW generator. He also builded a new Oudin vacuum tube which he called the Rife Rey Tube to connect with. However, the new technology of CW Electrotherapeutic devices with uninterrupted function produced obviously heat and no exciting medical results. A new name Diathermies (Dia-thermies) characteristic of the new effect "deep heating" was replacing the old name characteristic of therapy by electricity -Electrotherapeutic, which was a name obviously no longer valid.

Apparently, Rife was not detecting with his ahead of his time microscope, the same results with the CW Generators as with the old Electrotherapeutic DW devices. Rife quickly understood the cause for not having results was the non-interrupted CW waves. He decided to chop the CW and simulate them with the old Electrotherapeutic devices damping waves, DW. Rife was ahead of his time for a second time, first to realize the significance of DW for biology and medicine. The later Rife Generators were CW Radio frequency generators using modern radio tube technology modulated or chopped by another amplifier at an audio frequency to simulate a DW. It was this audio frequencies and not the CW Radio frequencies that Rife was investigating and claimed to be responsible for the many results he was seeing (see The Cancer Cure that worked by Barry Lynes, Marcus Books, Ontario, 1989).

What happened with the new technology CW Electrotherapeutic devices or the CW Diathermies (using their new names) replacing the old DW Electrotherapeutic devices. Obviously, they had no results Professor Eberhard was teaching at the Department of Electrotherapy of the Chicago Medicine of College. Hospitals start not using the modern CW Diathermies any more to the same extend and purposes they were using the old DW Electrotherapeutic Devices.
The Rife modulated RF generators were the first modern devices to simulate the function of the old Electrotherapeutic Devices.

John Crane, assistant of Rife went one step ahead, perhaps too far. He assumed that the audio frequency produced all the biological and medical results. He thought the presence of the CW carrier was not necessary. He produced an audio frequency generator the "Model CFR-1000" (out of his Crane Foundation for Rife Technologies) which was a solid stage programmable amplifier of the type Rife used to modulate his CW generator. Crane recorded in video exploding bacteria by his audio frequencies.

At one stage the Crane generators were identified as the Rife generators and became very popular. They were modified audio generators which one could buy ready made from Radio Shack (adding an amplification stage to it). Author's close examination of the Crane device, assumed to be a Rife generator, revealed that this device was a modern electroporator capable bursting microorganisms in vitro, i.e., at very small distances of the order of a fraction of a mm (millimeter) on a piece of glass under the microscope. The Crane output less than 60 volts (maximum voltage that can be afforded when brought in contact to the human body) may only burst microorganism at distances no bigger than a fraction of mm. The Crane device may be theorized that does not perform in vivo, i.e. on a human body or animal. The arrangement of Crane (shown by Crane to the author) was identical to an electroporator arrangement given in page 12, "Guide to Electroporation and Electrofusion" Academic Press, 1992.

Crane, the man who spent three years imprisonment for his activities, should be considered as the first man to perform in vitro Electroporation at a time that science ignored one of the most promising coming branches of biology and medicine. The story of Crane is a drama of an old Greek tragedy played by modern science.

George Lakhovsky, a Russian engineer, established himself in France, became a French citizen and was awarded the red ribbon of the Legion of Honor for his technical service during the First World War. He died in New York in 1942 at the age of 73. Lakhovsky was associated to Professor D'Arsonval who developed the first electrotherapeutic devices -see above the first electrotherapeutic devices. D'Arsonval one of the greatest scientists of our age presented communications of George Lakhovsky to the Paris Academie des Sciences and sponsored Lakhovsky's major work "The Secret of Life" published by Heinemann Medical Books Ltd in 1935.

The George Lakhovsky device is a complex multi-wave Electrotherapeutic device with several DW oscillators on it. It is described in the Lakhovsky's USA Patent of 1941, 2,351,055: "This invention relates generally to electric devices excited with impulses and more particularly to multiple wave length conducting and/or producing means".

Lakhovsky refers wrongly his device as a continues wave oscillator in his book "The Secret of Life" and should not be considered literally his devices so. Clearly, the Lakhovsky device described in his patents is a non continuous wave multiple radio frequency generator and particular a DW generator, having several resonant antennas attached to it, which are expected to tune in a DW mode after receiving an electric pulse or impulse. Apparently, Lakhovsky never adopted the new technology of Lee de Forest's radio tubes of his era as Rife did. Lakhovsky missed the comparison and inefficiency of CW with respect to DW. Unfortunately, for Lakhovsky the important difference and superiority of damped waves with respect to continuous waves remained unnoticed in all his otherwise correct and brilliant work, though in his applications he was using the right waves.

One may expects merits for the Lakhovsky device, due to its pulsed character and DW oscillations, as in the old Electrotherapeutic devices. However, the expected power of the Lakhovsky devices should be expected technically weaker compared to Priore's and Dotto's devices. The device may be theorized to stimulate intercellular activity, to mildly increase Electroporosity of cells, enhancing somehow the in-and-out exchange materials of the cell and eventually to increase some metabolism. The inventor claimed treating and curing cancer and many other degenerative diseases.

Antoine Priore graduated from a school of electricity in Trieste, Italy and became a radar operator in Italian Navy. "During this period he observed what to him was an exciting anomaly: some oranges left in the room filled with electrical bric-a-brac had fallen into an assemblage where they seemed to have been preserved in the same fresh state they had enjoyed when bought off a fruit stand. Other oranges in the room, bought at the same time, were rotten and putrid. Stunned by his observation, Priore dreamed through out the war of one day working out an electrical means of conserving foods in their fresh state based on what was a new, and wholly unexplained, principle. Newton's apple had become Priore's orange". We should note that a radar broadcast consists of a highly modulated microwave emission or as they are known the radar microwave pulses. Though, most people know about the Newton's apples, no body knows about the Priore oranges, however, Foodco a subsidiary company of Maxwell Laboratories of San Diego, California, a company engaged in food preserving seem to know much about oranges. They are developing food preserving modality based on strong electrical pulses or electroporation.

The device Priore developed simulated powerful radar pulses modulated by three series of frequencies one subsonic 0.5 to 2 Hz, one audio 300 to 900 Hz and one High to VHF radio frequency 16 to 300 MHz. The Priore device could be theorized to excite intercellular activity, to increase Electroporosity of cells enhancing the in-and-out exchange materials of the cell and eventually increase metabolism. Probably, intense exposure may cause the more evident effects of Electroporation, i.e., create bigger pore on the cell membrane, even bursting weak cell membranes or weak organism's membranes, i.e., may necrotize cancer cells by bursting the weak cancer cell membrane, kill microorganism as it was reported in numerous papers to the French Academy of Science. Info: Priore's french patent 1,342,772; "AIDS, Biological warfare" by T.E. Bearden, Tesla Book Company, Greenville, Texas, 1988.

Gianni A. Dotto was born in Venice, son of a prominent engineer who was the designer of two hydro-electric generating plants on both the American and Canadian sides of Niagara falls. His father was an Italian Marquis from a family directly descended from Galileo. Dotto had been trained as paratrooper, American fighter pilot and had become the head of the racing team of Alfa-Romeo, designer of racing cars and Professor at the University of Milan. He had two PhD's, one in Mechanical Engineering and one in Nuclear Physics from University of Milan, a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Wayne University of Detroit and became a prolific inventor having numerous Italian and American patents.

The Dotto ring was powered with a peculiar thermoelectric metal junction producing both a carrier oscillation and a modulation, in a way that is not known in Physics textbooks. The figure of 30,000 Amperes given by Dotto, though a considerable high current, matches with his claim of producing a moderate intense magnetic field for the particular size of his ring (confirmed by the Author's own calculations). Also his independent emphasis for having his oscillations modulated or shaped with high energy excursions agree with the general trend in all relevant devices. This underlying coincidence of modulating an electromagnetic wave should be scientifically convincing that there is a substantial truth in the mysterious and allegedly miraculous Dotto ring. The effective mechanism and results of the Dotto ring probably should be theorized the same as that of Priore device.

Evans Rapsomanikis was graduated from the Athens Technical University as an Electrical Engineer. He had been senior research scientists and director in numerous of top secret projects of Lockheed - such as Antisubmarine, Warfare, Guidance systems, and others for about 30 years. He developed the Satellite Guidance System L1011, now used with commercial jet airlines. He engaged himself to his Device and project after retiring from Lockheed.
Rapsomanikis has not made public the details of his technology. However, it is the authors understanding based on descriptions of various patients treated with the Rapsomanikis devices that Evans was using contact electrodes on the skin as a TENS device and also had the genius idea to use a perpendicular magnetic field to guide deep enough the electrical pulses into the body. Remember, fast current pulses administer by contact to the skin will stay on the skin by the skin effect. Similarly, an electric pulse will not penetrate the skin, because, physics by the principle of Gauss, teaches inside a hollow or solid conductor - the skin - the electrical field is zero (in effect the skin is a Faraday cage). Rapsomanikis genius innovation is a magnetic field which he uses as a guider or carrier for his electrical pulses. The inventor claimed treating cancer, AIDS and degenerative diseases.

These devices are the modern solid state descendants of the Tesla and D'Arsonval Devices. (see description in the table list).
Similar results as those reported for the Diapulse, apparent results for the PAP-IMI, or the Early Electrotherapeutic devices, are reported in french manuals, i.e., increase of vision, hearing, etc.
Electrosurgical Diathermies, as the most used tool in operating rooms, are the best example proving that CW and DW have different biological effects as we claim here. Electrosurgical Diathermy comes in to two main modes under the same energy. As a continues mode CW - cut mode and as a pulsed mode - coagulation mode. Electrosurgical Diathermy is an indisputable example proving that structured (pulsed) energy is different than the same amount of plain energy.
Applications of Electrosurgical diathermies are enormous and can be found in manuals not restricted by the regulations of FDA.

Surgery Laser Devices have also two modes, a cut mode and coagulation mode analogous to the Electrosurgical Devices. The coag mode is a pulsed thin beam laser light, i.e., a chopped or modulated laser beam. Literally it is a high peak power low average electromagnetic energy in the form of laser light. The cut mode is a continuous mode laser beam or a blend of continuous mode and a pulsed mode to smooth the continuous mode destructive power. Laser surgery follows the same principle as every other device listed above with a different carrier, a laser beam - which is coherent electromagnetic energy in the light frequency, instead of radio oscillation or wave - which is also coherent electromagnetic energy. (Note 1: Both radio waves and laser waves are coherent radiations with only one difference - frequency; Note 2: Ordinary light is a non-coherent mixture of frequencies). So here, we have a general profound phenomenon manifested with different carrier oscillations, independent of their frequencies, and primarily dependent on the shaping of their amplitude or their modulation, i.e. dependent on the structure of their energy release.