Brain Wave Synchronizer
name: label: user
content: Johnson, Ingersol Moten
label: maker
content: Schneider, Sidney A.
notes: label: Description
content: While working with the U.S. Navy during World War II, Sidney A. Schneider (1913-2002) saw that concerted attention to radar screens could put seamen into a trance. Returning to the Chicago area at the end of the war, Schneider developed a machine for this purpose, and put it on the market in 1958.
label: Description
content: This machine belonged to Ingersol Moten Johnson (1900-1981), an African-American physiotherapist in Washington, D.C. The inscription reads “BRAIN WAVE SYNCHRONIZER / MODEL NO 4 PATENT PENDING / SCHNEIDER INSTRUMENT CO. / SKOKIE, ILL. / 117 VOLTS 50 – 60 CYCLES AC 15 WATTS.”
label: Description
content: Ref: “The synchronizer: A flicker of light in world of hypnosis,” <i>Chicago Tribune</i> (Feb. 14, 1980), pp. A1, A8.
label: Description
content: G. S. Base, “The Schneider Brain Wave Synchronizer,” <i>Anesthesiology</i> (2010): 113.
label: Description
content: W. S. Kroger and S. A. Schneider, “An electronic aid for hypnotic induction: A preliminary report,” <i>International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis</i> 7 (1959): 93-98.
label: Description
content: M. S. Sadove, “Hypnosis in Anestheiology,” <i>Illinois Medical Journal</i> 124 (1963): 39-42.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Skokie
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift from Mrs. Dorothy Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0306.06
label: accession number
content: 1982.0306
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0306.06
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electotherapeutic Apparatus
label: Other Terms
content: Electotherapeutic Apparatus; Synchronizer, Brain Wave; Medicine
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 37.2 cm x 22.5 cm x 13 cm; 14 5/8 in x 8 7/8 in x 5 1/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 14 3/4 in x 5 3/4 in; 27.94 cm x 37.465 cm x 14.605 cm