Micro-Dynameter
notes: label: Description
content: Invented by an electrical engineer named Francis Cutler Ellis (1890-1957), the Ellis Micro-Dynameter promised to make the human body “function as a simple electrical cell and measure the current it generates” and also diagnose almost every human ailment. Distribution began in 1931, and it was soon widely accepted by chiropractors for diagnosing “subluxations” and became their main “bioelectrical instrument.” In the 1950s, the FDA estimated that about 5,000 had been sold. The device was manufactured in Chicago, and available in several models. In the 1960s, the FDA obtained an injunction banning interstate distribution of Micro-Dynameters and had them removed from many chiropractic offices. An inscription on this example reads “Ellis / Micro / Dynameter.”
label: Description
content: Francis Cutler Ellis graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1914, with a B.S. in electrical engineering. His son, Robert W. Ellis, served as president of Ellis Research Laboratories, in Chicago, in the 1960s.
label: Description
content: Ref: Francis Cutler Ellis, <i>Micro-Dynamics. New Science in Diagnosis and Treatment</i> (1935).
label: Description
content: Ellis Research Laboratories, <i>The Journal of Micro-Dynameter Research</i> (1954).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-12033
label: catalog number
content: M-12033
objectType: label: Object Name
content: micro dynameter