Electric Shocks And Alien Technology – 8 Bizarre Ways People Tried To Beat Ageing In The 1900s

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It is a sad reality that people who are dying are easier to scam – they have little to lose by trying an unapproved medical treatment, and there are plenty of ‘doctors’ unethical enough to offer them false hope while making money in the process. But strictly speaking, we are all in the same position – we are all slowly dying of ageing. We really want to believe in any new evidence suggesting that ageing can be prevented, and this is a bit of a problem for the biogerontology field. While great strides have been made in understanding why we age and how we might be able to intervene in the process, there is currently no definitive proof that human ageing has been slowed, but many products that claim to do just that. This can give people the wrong impression of the field – that the underlying science is not serious or that promising ideas about delaying ageing don’t exist.

As unfortunate as this may be, we’re pretty confident things are at least better than they used to be. At least many of the unproven ‘anti-ageing’ treatments of today are somewhat founded upon proven scientific mechanisms, which is more than can be said for the world we’re about to enter. What follows are 8 bizarre strategies people have tried in the past 100 years or so in an attempt to rejuvenate the body and cure age-related disease.

1: Electrical Quackery (1880s – present)

Whenever a new technology comes along, there is always a rush of excitement and ideas about how this technology could be harnessed to improve human lives. Unfortunately, with this comes a surge in opportunists seeking to exploit people’s optimism or ignorance of new science in order to pedal their inventions. Electricity was no exception. Enter Cornelius B Harness of the Pall Mall Medical Association and the Medical Battery Company. Towards the end of the 19th century, he popularised the ‘electropathic belt’, a device that produced mild electric currents when placed next to the skin. This current could supposedly fix ‘disruptions in an organ’s natural supply of electricity’ and thus cure a variety of ailments and restore vitality.

Harness made a fortune from his endeavour, but his business fell apart by 1893 after a series of widely publicised legal claims. It seemed many customers were unsatisfied, and had been served by salesmen falsely claiming to have medical expertise. Eminent physicist Lord Kelvin even weighed in to point out that the current generated by the belt was next to non-existent.

Perhaps Lord Kelvin was right – the current delivered by these belts was too low. Maybe what you needed was some electric shock therapy. Shock therapy machines came with a variety of implements for delivering electricity to different parts of the body, which was claimed to help restore and maintain a youthful appearance. Somewhat embarrassingly, we haven’t entirely moved on from this one – ‘cosmetic electrotherapy’ still exists today. For a (usually hefty) price, one can receive weak electric currents applied to the face, though there is no data to support that the treatment has any cosmetic benefits.

2: Radioactive Quackery (1900 – 1930)

Just as in the case of electricity, there were all kinds of ideas about how radioactivity could be harnessed to advance humanity, including in the medical field. Some of these ideas were great, and some of them sound like something out of a dystopian retro-sci-fi. Take for example the Radiendocrinator, the invention of ‘Dr’ J.A. Bailey (not a real doctor) in the 1920s. This small metal box containing radium could be strapped to one’s testicles ‘to ionise them’, thereby restoring youthful male vigour (unfortunately, this is not the last time testicles will feature on this list).

Women didn’t escape the radioactive quackery either. The French Tho-Radia brand of beauty creams promised to return a youthful complexion to your skin thanks to the the thorium and radium salts it contained, which inventor Alexandre Jaboin believed could ‘energise’ cells by delivering small doses of radiation. To boost his credibility, Jaboin partnered with a Dr Alfred Curie (no relation to Marie or Pierre Curie) so that he could slap the Curie name on his product. While putting these creams on your face certainly doesn’t sound like a great idea, they almost start to look appealing when you consider that Tho-Radia also sold toothpaste containing the same thorium-radium combination.

If you didn’t like the sound of any of these products, perhaps you would be interested in investing in a revigator. This radioactive tank could be used to store and treat drinking water overnight, a practice manufacturers claimed could stave off age-related diseases including arthritis and dementia. Analysis of water stored overnight in a vintage revigator was found to contain radon, arsenic, lead, vanadium and uranium. Fancy a sip?

3: Heavy Metals In Beauty Products (late 1800s – 1970s)

The 20th century was a golden age for facial skin care products. Much as today, facial creams claimed to smooth wrinkles and preserve smooth skin. Regardless of their current effectiveness, it is hard to argue they aren’t an improvement over 19th century skin care.

I for one am glad to see that these are safe arsenic wafers, it’s always reassuring when a manufacturer feels the need to put the word safe in the name of their product. Nibbling on wafers of this highly toxic metal would supposedly ‘transform the most sallow skin into radiant health’. And arsenic wasn’t the only toxic heavy metal touted for its beauty applications. Mercury was specifically recommended for sparse eyebrows and eyelashes, for example. While knowledge of the dangers of heavy metals grew over the decades, many were not officially outlawed until the 70s.

4: Organotherapy (1890s – 1930s)

Based on studies of glandular extracts, scientists correctly guessed in the late 1800s that levels of various important hormones declined with age. The natural conclusion for some was that restoring these hormones would rejuvenate the body. Extracts from the testicles, ovaries, thyroid and adrenal glands of various animals were all given to humans in the hope of rejuvenating them. While these attempts were not as misguided as most of this list, and even led to some successes (thyroid extracts for hypothyroidism) or were at least on the right track (pancreatic extracts for diabetes) they did not result in rejuvenation. In fact, many of these extracts would have contained too little of the relevant hormones to have much of an effect at all.

Some attempts to leverage these ideas went as far as surgery. French surgeon Serge Voronoff charged up to £1000 for operations in which he transplanted monkey testicular tissue into the testicles of elderly men, convinced that the process had a rejuvenating effect. Given what we understand about rejection of foreign tissue by the immune system, it is unlikely this technique would have had any beneficial effects beyond those of a placebo. In another iteration of these ideas, Austrian physiologist Eugen Steinach offered partial vasectomies based on the mistaken belief that preventing sperm production would increase testosterone production and restore youthfulness.

5: The Swoboda System (1900 – 1920)

Though relatively harmless, the Swoboda System is perhaps one of the stranger entries on this list because of just how little substance there is to it. Developed by Alois P. Swoboda, the Swoboda system was a mail order course consisting of six tension exercise lessons, such as flexing the forearm. This, it was claimed, was capable of restoring youth no matter the age and curing practically all diseases. Swoboda described his methods as being ‘based upon a discovery in the cells of the body which I made’. Intriguing. But it was apparently enough for Swoboda to gain a cult-like following including, for a brief period, Woodrow Wilson (before he became US president).

Swoboda would later sell $70,000 worth of oil stocks to his followers after claiming that he had been given the position of an untapped oil pool that was certain to be ‘an enormous gusher’. No oil was ever found. A certain L. Ron Hubbard, founder of scientology, would later incorporate many of Swoboda’s ideas into his religion.

6: The All-Coconut Diet (1900 – 1920)

Developed by German nudist August Engelhardt in the early 1900s, the all-coconut diet is pretty much what you’d expect. Convinced that coconuts were the most perfect food for humans on account of the fact that they grew close to the Sun, and believing that a coconut-focussed nudist lifestyle would result in immortality, Engelhardt decided to move to Kabakon Island in what is now Papua New Guinea in 1902. There, he built a three-story hut to live in, ran a coconut plantation, and began his multi-decade experiment with a diet consisting mostly of coconuts. He also began to recruit a cult following of like-minded coconovores back in Europe, a few of whom came to join him on the island.

When Engelhardt developed an ulcer on his leg, he decided to reassess his diet. Could the excessive coconut consumption be the problem? No – the tropical fruits he was eating must be at fault, he reasoned, and so he from this point on he adopted a coconut monodiet. He also further developed his theories about the Sun, such as his proposal that the brain obtained nourishment directly from the sun via the hair roots. In 1905, Engelhardt was hospitalised at a body weight of 39kg, beset with ulcers and unable to walk (keep in mind he was 29 at the time). Doctors helped him make a full recovery, but he fled the hospital to return to the island, where he eventually died 14 years later, age 43.

7: The Zerret Applicator (1946 – 1950)

One of the great early successes of radiation in medicine was the use of X-rays. But what would come after X-rays? Y-rays. But wait, γ is the symbol for gamma radiation, that won’t work. How about… Z-rays? The zerret applicator was a peanut shaped device designed by William R. Ferguson. It contained a mysterious fluid that released Z-rays, exposure to which was touted to slow ageing and act as a general cure-all. According to its inventor, Z-rays were ‘a force unknown to science’ and worked by ‘expanding the hydrogen atom, which in turn produces positive Life Energy. When you hold the Zerret Applicator, it works on your life current, expanding the atoms of the same. As this takes place, it in turn expands all atoms of your being’.

I don’t know about you, but claiming your Z-rays are unknown to science before going on to explain the supposed scientific mechanism seems like mixed messaging to me. Whatever the case may be, the true genius of the zerret applicator was in its usage instructions. Users were to sit with their legs apart while holding the device in both hands, close their eyes and remain still for 15 minutes, repeating this process 3 times a day. This certainly would have had a calming effect and probably would have made users feel like the device was working.

Above, Raymond Massey showcases and debunks the zerret applicator alongside other quack products.

Ferguson was jailed for fraud in 1950 after the devices were investigated and found to contain cotton soaked in paraffin, dry cotton, or in one case water (so the design wasn’t even consistent). It doesn’t seem as though this stay in prison had much of a lasting impact on him, however. After he was released two years later, he began to claim that Z-rays had been revealed to him by aliens and that he had visited Mars. He then turned to selling ‘Martian cups’ from which one could inhale ‘positive energy particles’.

8: The Integratron (1959 – present)

If you think the name sounds like the invention of someone who read too much golden age sci-fi, then you are probably correct. The Integratron is a structure designed by former aircraft mechanic George Van Tassel (or, if Van Tassel is to believed, it was designed by aliens from Venus who taught him how to rejuvenate human tissues). Tassel claimed that the Integratron worked by generating ultra wideband electromagnetic frequencies that ‘resonated’ with the natural frequency of human cells, thereby ‘recharging’ cellular structures like batteries.

Construction of the main part of the building was finished in 1959, though the full structure was never finished. This is a shame, as it would have been capable of rejuvenation, anti-gravity and time travel. The building has since been bought and now serves as a venue for ‘sound baths’ featuring tones from 22 quartz crystal bowls, claimed to promote ‘relaxation and rejuvenation’.

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That concludes our list of the strangest anti-ageing therapies in recent history. If you had to try any of these for some reason, then I’d probably recommend the Swoboda system. It wasn’t that expensive and probably wouldn’t kill you, though I wouldn’t suggest buying any of Mr Swoboda’s stocks. While we may laugh at some of these ideas, make no mistake: even today, there are still plenty of terrible, sometimes dangerous products claiming to slow ageing or cure disease. And while regulatory oversight ensures we’re unlikely to see anything like radon toothpaste again, today’s quackery is arguably harder to identify because it is so often wrapped in respectable science. If you are interested in learning more about how you can spot misleading health products, check out this article in which we cover 10 red flags that could indicate that a seller is trying to mislead you.