Accredited Museum

THE ELECTROPOISE (Part of the Quackery Collection), 1910's

Hercules Sanche was the inventor of the Electropoise (shown) and the Oxydonor, both claiming to do the same thing.

The device was very simple, consisting of a chrome or nickel plated sealed metal cylinder. If opened the contents could be sand or carbon, or in most cases nothing at all. Cloth wrapped wires led from each end with a metal plate of copper or aluminium attached to the ends of the cylinder.

Users of diaduction (a word coined by Sanche to describe the so called benefits of oxygen being absorbed through the skin) placed the metal plates on their body with elastic bands and placed the cylinders in a bowl of water.

In 1915 the US Post Office prevented Dr Sanche’s gadgets from passing through the mail system, this did not stop his production of many Quackery items. He moved around the country avoiding prosecution for 33 years. In 1952 he was still operating in Florida.

Bruce Hammond Collection

A1187