Can electric currents cure disease and relieve pain?
That’s a question some scientists have been asking since Ben Franklin’s kite experiment in 1752.


In the late 1800s a medical fad began — the selling of electric belts.
Each belt sold promised to cure a specific ailment.
There were belts to cure rheumatism, sexual dysfunction, liver, stomach, nervous diseases, and more. The patient would purchase and wear one of these belts.

This brochure is from the late 1800s or early 1900s.
It was printed by The German Electric Company and features a wide variety of their electric belts.

Many dismissed these electric belts as quack medical devices.
But during the twenty-odd years this medical fad existed electric belts sold like hot cakes.