Yes...once upon a time...A violet ray is an antique medical appliance used during the early 20th century in the obsolete medical therapy called electrotherapy. Their construction usually feature a combination of a disruptive discharge coil with an interruptor to apply a high voltage, high frequency, and low current to the human body for therapeutic purposes. Their basic construction was invented by Nikola Tesla prior to 1900, who introduced their first prototypes at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Most of the antique violet rays in the US were produced before theDepression era and some of the larger US manufacturers of violet rays were Renulife, Fitzgerald and Fisher. You can read more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_ray
Needless to say they promised more than they delivered!
See the last GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN POST here at Everything Croton--just click on the link http://everythingcroton.blogspot.com/2015/07/almost-gonebut-not-forgotten-spudnut.html
Saw one of these once at an exhibit on Quakery Medical Devices in Yonkers some years ago. It's hard to believe there was ever a time when people believed that stuff.
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