White Cross Improved No. 18 Physicians Combination Vibrator

Initially this was purchased because it was a vibrator, but one look at it told me there was much more to this story than being just a vibrator. It was quite a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but was too rare to pass up. At first glance, it's clearly different than the other vibrators if by nothing more than the sheer bulk of its case. One could easily fit several contemporary vibrators within this thing. Taking out the White Cross catalog/user manual that I found on a previous auction, I started to puzzle together what I had was an Improved No. 18 Physicians Combination Vibrator set. It came with a myriad of wires and cords, screw terminals that appeared to be missing parts, and a number of handles, pads, plates, a period-original light bulb, and a number of electrical bits that I couldn't identify their purpose. The top section of the interior contained the bulk of this huge mess of stuff, so the first order of business was to get everything separated, sorted, untangled and then clean out the case itself. The color of the lining is a deep red, though some variation between pictures has more to do with camera settings and lighting than anything else.

 Batteries were connected in increasing numbers the six connections at the bottom, which provided different voltage levels for controlling the vibrator or coil.

 Those circles in the bottom? Those are for the original power supply for this unit: No. 6 dry-cell telephone batteries. The size is roughly that of a 16 ounce can of your favorite energy drink, but with 1.5V and a lot of current capacity. Two threaded screw terminals were on the top as well. The unit ran on 15 of these batteries. Interestingly enough, they are still available, but at around $17 each, and weighing 1.8lb each, it's far more practical to rig up a modern power supply to deliver DC current than spend almost $300 to add almost 30lbs to the case. It's heavy as it is!

 The various pads, loose hardware and electrical bits that came with it..

 The clamp was to hold the vibrator to a chair, to make a "vibrating chair" for the sanitarium experience at home.

Essentially, this is one of the first TENS units ever made, in addition to having a vibrator with it. As time permits, a modern power supply will be connected to the coil to see if it works, and what the output looks like, if I can reasonably prevent it from destroying my oscilloscope.

The one thing that is missing from this photo set is the 'resistance bulb'. I was able to figure out that it was intended to be used in conjunction with a special lamp socket that put the resistance bulb in series with the combination kit that allowed it to be used with 110V household current. Given the time period, it's a fair question if that meant 110V DC current only, or if AC was ok too. Unfortunately the lamp socket adapter did not come with it, but it is fairly trivial to create one using off the shelf parts at any electrical supply/home improvement store. I've made some repairs and cleaned up the vibrator, but it's still waiting for me to get around to replacing the cord.

2013, The year that wasn't...until it was.

Having had a recent occasion to show someone this blog, it became painfully clear just how out of date it has become. Not that I've been busy working on various projects and not sharing them with you, quite the opposite. Outside forces conspired over the course of 2013 that made it very difficult to do much restoration work, however some little things here and there which I've found some pictures for have come to light, and will soon get posted. I think I might even mean it this time.

How time flies...

Well, it's been almost a year exactly since my last post, and what a year it has been. My personal life has become as much of a project as any of the restorations, including a move, a promotion at work, numerous trips to IKEA and Home Depot, the brilliantly entertaining meetings of the irregulars, discovering the amazing work of Brene Brown, executing a ninja wedding with the Bard, the Devil, Young Kubrick, The Priest, and one yet unnamed character, my sister's wedding 6 weeks later, handling photography for the first gay marriage performed at IML, the Balance and Doomhammer moving to California, the Bard getting a new job, and being elected to the board of the club. Most of that list doesn't really bear pontification, but there are a few things that I do plan to dedicate some posts to when the mood strikes. Last but not least, a voracious appetite for new restoration projects.

I'll eventually get around to writing about the various projects in detail, but here's the rundown of what's new:
Vibrators:
(2) Royal No. 2's (One was the Jurist's)
(2) Royal No. 3's  One sadly broke trying to diassemble it to repair another part.

(3) Hamilton Beach Type C's
White Cross No. 21 (Not mine)
Halliwell-Shelton Gentry (aka Shelton Junior)
Shelton (full-size)
Premier
Andis (In green, this time)
White Cross Improved No. 18 Physicians Combination Vibrator
Elco No. 12 Combination Violet Ray / Vibrator (In addition to the Elco No. 12 that is in pieces)

Not that I had finished everything I had previously started, but there are a few more things I would like to get done. I've also started and finished some other projects in the meantime.Our next move, hopefully sometime next year, will give me enough space to have a permanent workshop.

Quick update on the No 12.

Just to show someone what it looks like. Details to follow...

There was smoke, but no fire...

The first half of the tale of Halloween. 

In the course of my evening, I got a little work done on a few projects, notably I made an adjustment to the Elco No 7 capacitor situation. I found some 630V .1uf mylar film caps, put them on the breadboard and wired them in to see if they offered better performance over the ceramic film caps I've been using.

I started the experiment with 6, then 5, then 4, then 3 to observe the difference in output. As I started to play around a bit with 3, the overall output was much, much stronger, and I wasn't really paying so much attention to the unit itself, but the spark length from the electrode to the tweezers in my hand. A couple of minutes had passed by this point, and while that is really nothing in terms of what the caps should be able to handle, fine white smoke suddenly started to waft upwards at me. I killed the power, and looked down to see the corners of the mylar caps blackened and bubbling which subsided after about 5 seconds of the power being off. So that clearly won't work.

After disposing of my electronic popcorn, I repeated the same experiment with 3 ceramic caps, which are 1000V rated, which worked like a champ. I had previously replaced the guts of the "condenser" shell with 6 ceramic caps, but the output was way too weak. My theory was flawed, in that by lengthening the pulse out, that there would be greater peak output. What I failed to appreciate was that while it might have increased peak voltage, the duty cycle actually would be shorter due to the additional charge/discharge time. New knowledge in hand, I removed half the caps, and it's been running much more like its former self. I will eventually try dropping down to .2uf, but I also need to make sure that I'm not otherwise overheating the coils or anything else that will be a nightmare to repair/fix. Burning out caps isn't ideal, but is a hell of a lot easier to fix than trying to have a 100 year old coil rebuilt.

At any rate, I did manage to take a picture of the 2 visibly burned up caps, after thinking I should probably document the failure. I stuck them back into the breadboard haphazardly for the picture.

So after a little bit of conferring with the Tinkerer, more measurements will be needed to validate that the voltage at the caps remains <550V when running with reduced capacitance compared to the original cap that was in it. Regardless, the voltage should still not be exceeding 1kv.

The Ebay special, Elco style.

So I've been a little behind in updating, finally having a little free time now to write.

A couple weeks ago,  I was trolling around ebay looking for Violet Rays of the vintage sort. In particular, the Elco models. There but before my eyes appears a Model 12, in what looks like rough, but workable shape. The price couldn't be beat, so after a little mental deliberation, and conferring with the Bard, I decide, what the hell. I buy it. As if I needed another project.

It duly arrives, a week and change later, and while the insides were packed brilliantly, the outside was loose in the shipping box, and had been kicked around by UPS for a week. The lid was no longer attached to the frame of the box, and some other incidental damage. I was not pleased. Because the price was good, I wasn't going to make a scene about it on ebay, but at the same time, I made my point to the seller about packing it with some padding around it. The seller was very good about it, but it's still a mess. I haven't tested the glass, and am working on the metal electrodes. More pictures will be forthcoming once I get it apart and see how the back side of it is set up. It's significantly more complex than the No. 7, so I'm curious as to what exactly the binding posts are delivering power wise. This thing also included some vibrator attachments, which would have gone along with the kit originally, but the vibrator itself isn't with it. At any rate, here's what we're starting with...

Enter The Electrician...Updated!

The Bard and the Devil had previously prepared me for what was to become my indoctrination into the Saturday Irregulars, through a number of various amusing tales. I went in fully expecting to get the fresh meat grilling, and was actually quite surprised.

Once we had arrived, the usual social introductions were made, and everyone returned to their perches on the floor or couches. Farthest from me was (nicknames courtesy of the Devil's blog) The Balance, on his right the Psychiatrist (on temporary loan from the military), The Molester, The Jedi, Doomhammer, then Myself, the Bard was next to me, and a short while later, Foxy Moxy on the opposite end of the couch from the Balance. The Balance decrees proper introductions are in order. Around the makeshift circle we go, with some various bits of name, rank and serial number, usually accompanied by the answer to "so, what have you been doing lately?" and so on. Naturally, I'm last being my first time.

The attention now is shifted over to me, and who I am. It starts out innocently enough, with my name and what I do for work, and all that. While they have not met me, as such before, some already know about some of my more interesting aspects. They know me from the Devil's blog as "The Electrician". At the reiteration of this fact to the crowd, the wandering eyes have come back to look at me squarely. Momentarily I wonder how much the Bard and Devil have primed the audience over the previous 6 months.

The Balance starts in with the questions, the exact details of which I cannot recall, but to the effect of "Explain the electrical stuff to us." We start with the Erostek boxes, and their operation. They are similar to medical TENS units. (TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electro Nerve Stimulation, if you're curious.) The Erostek boxes offer a much greater range of control and specifically designed patterns to create pleasurable sensations. I get into the waveform output of the medical units, and then building on how the Erostek units take that a step farther (or several). We also get into the voltage and that it is and AC current source, but much lower voltage and way less amperage than your normal household outlet. The Balance, as it happens, starts to become the only person in the room who is still following my explanation. His electrical engineering background now revealed, we continue.

The Balance now satisfied with my explanation of the Erostek/TENS type products shifts his questions to the Violet Wands. 

"What is the difference then between the TENS units and a Violet Wand?" The Balance asks.

I explain that the only really common element is that they use electricity. The Violet wand uses a tuned pulse circuit, with a spark-gap interrupter to set the initial pulse, which feeds a primary coil, stepping up the line voltage to around 500VAC, which is then fed through a capacitor into a kicking coil (a high-voltage transformer, or tesla coil), raising the output to 10-50kV, and at a frequency of about 1/2MHz. The output is then used with some sort of air-gapped electrode, producing sparks of greater length as the output/voltage increases. The Bard also adds in the story of herself, the Devil, and Young Kubrick holding up the metallic fabric recently acquired, and then I proceed to put on a lightning show in her living room. Which was quite a bit of fun, I might add. The question of the sensation comes up, and as I try to find the words, the Bard looks at me, and just says "Stingy." I add in a bit about it being stingy, and if done for a while, leaves a bit of a sunburn like feeling behind, but can be fairly easily handled with some aloe. If the electrode is placed directly against the skin, however, it will simply get a bit warm.

The focus now returns back to the Erostek boxes.

"So, what does it FEEL like?"

The burning question everyone wants answered. The crowd was anticipating that the equipment was coming along, and would have had I known. I turned to the Bard and asked why didn't we bring it, and she shrugs and tells me no one made the request. I explain the sensation, in terms of say a hand gripping a muscle, or giving a massage, except that there is no tactile response, it is your muscles doing it themselves, in a very scalable, controllable, repetitive way. I attempt to demonstrate on myself using my hand on the opposite forearm as an example of the motion that it generally feels like if it were someone doing it. The ghost sensation is a factor though. It extricates the human element from the equation entirely. This will come into play later.


Foxy asks about piercings and how they factor into it, which is an important consideration when selecting electrode locations. The short answer is to not allow any sort of conductive piercing jewelry to be in contact with electrodes, but we do discuss it at length. As part of the safety briefing portion of the conversation, explaining how you should never set electrodes up in such a way that current can cross the chest cavity across the front was the other key point. When it doubt, ask someone who knows. I've seen professionally shot videos of people who did not obey these rules. Do not be the next joke at the firehouse, or worse.


At some point, the living room is abandoned for the kitchen. I don't recall why, but it happened. The Bard and the Psychiatrist went out for a smoke at that juncture. After what seemed like they could have smoked a half carton, they reappeared. Around the kitchen table sat the Balance at the head, Foxy on his left, the Molester, The Jedi, and Doomhammer. They discussed other things, giving me a bit of time to observe and absorb. After standing for a while, I took a seat next to the Bard, having just returned from placating the nicotine gods.

The Balance and I struck up further conversation.

"So, what do you get out of this stuff?" he asks.

Having relatively glossed over the practical possibilities, I started to further explain the insertables vs. the pads. This is where the discussion became incredibly amusing. I start to explain the how the insertables can create different sensations by virtue of their shape or style. Basically it can do one of two things, sometimes both: prostate stimulation, or a sort of sex like sensation of muscle contractions. Shape, size, and electrode location and your unique anatomy dictate these possibilities. All of a sudden, the boys all start to see how incredibly interesting this could be. I begin to ask them, Do you like the idea of a threesome without the threesome? This can replicate some of that. Being able to apply that same precise amount of stimulation in the same place, as long as you can stand or want it? That can all be arranged. Explaining some of the combinations to the Balance, the change in expression on his face tells me he gets it now.


 "The other guys need to hear about this, do you mind telling them?" the Balance asks quickly, as to not lose the excitement of the moment.

 "No, not at all. I just have to run to the bathroom first." I reply.

I was barely washing my hands in the bathroom before I can hear the Balance's voice recounting my moments old explanation to the guys. I stifle a chuckle, and return to my seat, with little left to recount, as the cat is well out of the bag now. They all get it.

They've entered the world of The Electrician.