Title: Home battery

Identifier: Country Doctor Museum   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/14354)

Description: The use of electricity in physical therapy is now tightly regulated. During the early 20th century, however, people could purchase electrical batteries and perform electro – therapy at home! This Household Medical Battery was manufactured by the Voltamp Electric Manufacturing Company in Baltimore, Maryland. The home battery includes a battery, a set of handles, a set of battery cords, a pair of sponge electrodes, and a metal foot plate. Home batteries are sometimes referred to as “quack” devices. Advertisements claimed that they could cure everything from limb impairments (some of which are still treated with electro-therapy today) to commonly described symptoms, such as “weak lungs” or “sluggish liver” that could not have been treated effectively by electricity.