Flea Market or Scrap Pile???

I'm sure I will look for a buyer for this fine bit of Medical Quackery. I'm not sure though, should I try to clean it up, refinish it, or just leave it as is?

I found it at a yard sale yesterday. For $10, I just couldn't resist it.



I think my best bet would be to sell on ebay but shipping this beast seems like a nightmare. As pictured it stands about 3 feet high and weighs probably 30 to 35 pounds.











Would love to hear your opinions. The flea market is a viable option. Most likely I won't get much more than scrap price for it there though.

It's neat. Ebay or kijiji would be my beat. Not sure what's it be worth might have to sit on it for a while. always the antique road show . lol but but you spent ten bucks so deffently not the scrap pile

Wow .... that's a blast from the past. They don't make em' like that anymore ! There's a bit of history there.

An ultraviolet carbon arc lamp ? Any idea if it still works ?

Sounds weird but the basic idea of it was right. ( It reproduces sunlight ) People go to the tanning bed all the time. Doctors use " Light Therapy " to treat people with depression and low vitamin D levels. All of the fluorescent bulbs at the healthcare facility where i used to work were replaced with ones that replicate sunlight. I even use em' in my shop cause they help stave off that drag ass feeling you get in the middle of winter when daytime light conditions are low.

It would be a shame to scrap it out. I wouldn't try to clean it up because you could damage it in the process.

If you could sell it at a flea market for twenty bucks you could double your money without too much effort.

Even better if you could find a museum to donate it to.

That's a keeper in my mix of collectibles and quack medical items are very collectible. Values are from very little to some very valuable, all depends on condition, working, rarity and desire to own. One of my best finds was a Violet Ray Wand, outlawed by the FDA, these thing claimed to cure just about every medical condition and in reality no or very little medical value. Mine is in perfect shape and works just as it was designed to do, amazing surprise and sensual dazzling cures that must work, a Buck Rogers medical future!



This picture is from Google Images, identical as the one I found, mine is actually in much better shape. Just to lazy today to mess with Photobucket and their time consuming procedures! These devices or similar devices have made somewhat of a modern reincarnation. Not as a medical device, but as a bedroom sex stimulation device, my GF say's "are you out of your F***..g Mind! Medicine has advanced and in the bedroom we keep trying (anything that helps).

Originally Posted by Scrappah

Wow .... that's a blast from the past. They don't make em' like that anymore ! There's a bit of history there.

An ultraviolet carbon arc lamp ? Any idea if it still works ?

Sounds weird but the basic idea of it was right. ( It reproduces sunlight ) People go to the tanning bed all the time. Doctors use " Light Therapy " to treat people with depression and low vitamin D levels. All of the fluorescent bulbs at the healthcare facility where i used to work were replaced with ones that replicate sunlight. I even use em' in my shop cause they help stave off that drag ass feeling you get in the middle of winter when daytime light conditions are low.

It would be a shame to scrap it out. I wouldn't try to clean it up because you could damage it in the process.

If you could sell it at a flea market for twenty bucks you could double your money without too much effort.

Even better if you could find a museum to donate it to.

Kinda crazy that you actually know what it is. I wouldn't plug it in as-is because the wiring looks pretty rough.

Etsy would be probably be a better bet than Ebay for something like that.
The "punk" and "industrial" community would love it !

Originally Posted by HipoGear

Kinda crazy that you actually know what it is. I wouldn't plug it in as-is because the wiring looks pretty rough.

What can i say .... i'm a geek !

Yeah ... probably best not to plug it in. Near as i could tell it was probably made sometime between 1930 & 1950. That's pretty old.

I Googled the A.S. Aloe company after i posted. There's a lot of well documented history of the family and the company there. It's a rage to riches tale about an immigrant who worked hard and made something of himself. Typical American dream stuff.

Sometimes the value of a piece goes up when there's an interesting provenance to go along with it.

If working, there may be an art market interested in the lamp. Years ago I worked at a silk screen shop. we used UV reactive emulsion to create the silk screen art. Basically, I would squeegee the emulsion on the silk screen and let it dry. I would receive the artwork and I would put the art in front of the coated silk screen in a glass exposure contraption. I would flip it up and start a carbon arc lamp to expose to UV light. The art work was a UV blocking film that protected the artwork area from exposure. Once exposed, I would pull the screen and rinse with water. The exposed emulsion would stay and the unexposed would rinse out with water. I would then dry the screen and it would be masked to make the screen sealed and durable for printing. If you were doing silk screen printing and that lamp works, it would be a product you might need. Of course, this was thirty years ago and now they probably have modern equipment that work better and cheaper, but it might be worth it to look into it.