This blog, from December 2010, covers a topic I could not fully discuss in my Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts, which I thought was too bad, because it really fascinated me. In fact, I discovered that there are YouTube videos about violet ray machines that are in use today. While writing the biography, I pondered long and hard about whether Juliette Low’s use of such technologically innovative cures was caused by her desperation to hear better or her love of newfangled gadgets–or both.
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Juliette Gordon Low was hearing impaired. She sought many treatments throughout her life, and one of the most interesting was the Violet Ray Machine.
Violet ray machines were at their most popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Daisy Low owned one several years before then.
According to their devotees, these contraptions could make nearly everything better. They could bring about “a feeling of well-being, increased mental vigor, [and] heightened resistance to infection,” or so wrote Dr. E. P. Cumberbatch, an Oxbridge physician in the British Medical Journal. More specifically, the violet ray machine cured infants who were unable to eat, children who were plagued by endemic fevers, and adults with the flu. It could assist in healing tuberculosis, rickets, lupus, eczema, acne, boils, and carbuncles.
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| Advertisement for a later violet ray machine. |
Atlanta physician Dr. Jack Jones maintained that the basic idea of applying ultra-violet light to a patient was an old remedy, known and used by ancient Egyptians who put their sick outside to profit from the sunshine. The violet ray machine approximated sunlight, using a Tesla coil and (often) inert argon gas to stimulate nerve endings and speed healing. They ran on battery power or electricity and when on, emitted a purple, or violet, light. Hence their name.
Most violet ray machines had a wand with various attachments, useful for different ailments.
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| Violet ray wand, with detachable head. |
What exactly did Daisy do with hers? I can speculate from the directions in a 1930 manual accompanying a home violet ray machine which read: “Deafness, Earache, and Ear Diseases: Apply ear electrode with very mild current into the ear. Care must be exercised so as not to touch the ear drum. Three to five minutes is sufficient.”
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| A violet ray kit for home use. |
If you are interested, you can still purchase violet ray machines today. Antique machines appear on e-bay. Modern ones, along with claims about their success rate and the illnesses they ameliorate, can be found on the web.
Did the violet ray machine cure Daisy Low’s hearing loss? No. Nothing did. But it is interesting to know that she was willing to try many different cures, this one included.
Sources: E. P. Cumberbach, “Observations on Ultra-Violet Ray Therapy,”British Medical Journal, Vo. 2, No. 3523 (14 July 1928): 43-46 (quotes from page 45).
Jones, Jack. ”Ultra-Violet Ray Therapy in Dermatology,” Southern Medical Journal, Vol. XVI, No 6 (June 1923): 423-426.
First photo: Modern Mechanix (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/); second photo: Electrotherapy Museum (http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com); third photo: E-bay.
Interesting. In the 60s, my mother found a “sun lamp” which was really a uv purple light for my sister to use to help cure her acne. Gotta give Daisy credit for always be willing to try something new!
Camille–Yep. That’s Daisy all right! She was never one with her feet stuck in the past, even though she had a healthy appreciation for tradition and history.
Christie–We know she used several different types of hearing aids, and those who knew her attest to the ear trumpet. Of course, those came in all different sizes and like our technology today morphed over time as improvements were made to them. Daisy, as you know from my book, had a Victrola and loved it. She easily could have gotten ahold of opera highlights to listen to in her own home–and she did have that era’s training on piano. She did enjoy music, including her husband’s orchestrion. This is all in the book, of course!
Katherine–Thank you so very, very much–as usual!
Thanks to all of you for reading and commenting!
Hi Stacy…I found this info to be very interesting as I have
lots of questions about JL’s hearing loss when I am impersonating her. I did not know about the Violet Ray Machine.
Does she ever mention her ear trumpets in her journals. I don’t think there are any known pics of her using a hearing device.
She must have been able to improve her hearing somewhat significantly in order for her to enjoy opera which many people
find boring. Many of the operas she attended in London would
have been in German or Italian and they did NOT have subtitles in those days. Opera usually requires a fairly well developed interest in music and one must be able to follow the story line.
I am so glad you are re-publishing some of these fascinating posts!