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.