Boyd's Battery
date: label: date made
content: ca. 1880
label: patent date
content: 1878-01-17
notes: label: Description
content: The “BOYD’S BATTERY” inscription on this small gizmo refers to a widely advertised personal wellness device introduced in the late 1870s. A reporter who visited J. C. Boyd’s laboratory in New York City mentioned “a secret method of amalgamating the metals used, which is the great reason of the powerful action of the battery upon the body, and this secret is known only to Prof. Boyd and some of his staff.” Boyd’s battery was allegedly patented on January 17, 1878, but the U.S. Patent Office did not issue patents on that date.
label: Description
content: Ref: “Electricity as a Curative Agent,” ad in The United States Official Postal Guide (Jan. 1881), p. 37.
label: Description
content: J. C. Boyd, Boyd’s Miniature Galvanic Battery ().
label: Description
content: The Blood is the Life. Nearly all Diseases Effectually Cured by Boyd's Miniature Galvanic Battery! (1880).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: From Milo Elso Emerson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-04999
label: catalog number
content: M-04999
label: accession number
content: 161047
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electrotherapeutic Apparatus
label: Object Name
content: electrotherapeutic apparatus, battery
label: Other Terms
content: Electrotherapeutic Apparatus, Boyd's Battery; Electrotherapeutic Apparatus; Battery, Boyd's; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 1 1/4 in; 2.54 cm x 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/8 in x 1 1/4 in; .3175 cm x 3.175 cm