Hi guy's,

Just got a couple quick questions I thought maybe someone here has time to answer.

I'm thinking of scrapping a couple of these diathermy machines from the 80's. can't seem to sell 'em but the're just too weird to scrap, well, at least until I work out what everything is.

I opened the back panel to have a quick look, it's very frankensteinish don't you think?





What is the giant light bulb, is that a valve?





and this thing, is this a magnetron?





what is that wheel? I think it's ceramic..





and finally, what is the copper coil for?




There's a huge transformer & one half it's size.
maybe 12 kg's total, but that's only $7 in scrap, add a little copper, some steel and alloy, might be $8 total scrap value here for me.

Would the lightbuld have any interest to anyone?

It looks like it could potentially do the power supply & osc for a display Tesla coil.

Kinda looks like a ham radio VHF RF amplifier. Are there RF carrying connectors, like a "UHF" or "BNC" on it? If it's an amplifier it may accept an input from a radio transciever to be amplified to around a 100 watts.

Yeah, that sort of circuitry evokes association with Frankenstein labs as we know them.

Those diathermy machines are essentially simple radio transmitters. They contain a rectifier to convert the AC to DC and a tuned oscillator circuit to generate the required frequency. Such tuned circuits comprise coils and capacitors. The squarish multi-plated device is a high voltage capacitor.

The tube/valve looks to be a high power triode?

The rectifier would be connected to the secondary side of the power transformer and may be a selenium type.

And speaking of Frankenstein and Tesla, the guy who built those fantastic sparking and whirring labs that were the staple of all mad (Hollywood) scientists was Kenneth Strickfaden. This short piece claims that the coil was built by Tesla himself and that "Boris Karloff was terrified of electricity, so Kenneth even stepped up to be his stunt double."

http://necrobiology.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/horror-movie-hall-of-fame-i-dr-frankensteins-electrician/

IIRC, somebody saved most of that set's equipment and recently restored it to working order. I may have a link somewhere.

It would be higher value than the $8 scrap for steam punk parts.
If you search eBay for "steampunk or "steam punk",
you're probably going to do better with this here piece of machinery.

This is the proper application of style:

Image Link



It's only unfortunate when this goes wrong, and ruins something special!

It is actually called medically "Short Wave Diathermy"

That's why the coils are what they are; It is a transmitter.

The big globe may actually be a Reflex Klystron and the big white thing, if it is not the rectifier it is a High voltage ceramic cap.

Being VHF the big thick coils are likely tubes.

Marc

The big globe may actually be a Reflex Klystron

Did they make Klystrons for HF? I usually associate them with microwave frequencies.

I ripped one of these apart about a year ago. I've had it for years and whilst I knew it was medical equipment I wasn't sure of what it was. Diathermy machines are almost handheld devices these days with cut and coagulate functionality.

I still have the valve, made by RCA. Not really sure what to do with it. The manufacturer of the machine is Both - made in England from memory.

That's the word I was looking for, steam punk.
I like that outfit Art, she's a stunner.

Interesting about boris karloff, what a sook, but he's one of my fav' actors.

These machines are Australian made, by medical equipment services, MES. but maybe the components are english?

This is what they look like..





I like the meter on the front, it's say's, Paton Electrics Sydney..








It say's Volts 240, Amps 4.0, Frequency 50.





The last service date was 1989, so that might suggest it was built late 70's, early 80's?

I think I need to market these better and follow the steam punk theme, might have to put 'em aside for a while.

I wish I took a photo of mine before the day of destruction. Mine looked the same as those, just with a different brand. The innards were also similar in type and layout. There was a chain attached to the "Patient" toggle switch on mine which made me think it was an electro-convulsive therapy machine when I first got it.

Update: I just checked MES out and they are still in business. I can't find anything related to Both though. Maybe the one I had underwent a refit at some stage.

Yeah I saw MES are still going strong.

One of mine also had a long string on the patient switch.
must of been an emergency cut off for the patient

Some time ago the TV transmitters for the Ten Network were using Klystrons as exciters.

The Klystron should have a number on it, which would enable tracing of it. I did have a Philips data book covering such TV things.

May be a few volts on that judging by the separate transformers, insulation and distances to stop flash over.

Read: 240V 4A 50cps that's what it is chomping from the mains. Not quite a kW. The conversion may be as low as 33%? So it may not output as much as 60W at maximum.

Marc

Interestingly, there's an MES in India still making 27MHz diathermy gear:

http://www.indiamart.com/medical-equipmentsolutions/physiotherapy-equipment-and-appliances.html#mes-metal-case-short-wave-diathermy.

Medical Equipment Solutions instead of Medical Equipment Services, but there may be a connection.

If it is complete & one is able to power it a frequency counter, or spectrum analyser should ping the frequency it runs at.

Re string: Could have belonged to a quack physiotherapist: Strung his customers along?

Marc