Violet wands are often used to stimulate skin.
Violet wands are highly specialized electrical devices dating back to the late 1800s. During the 1920s and 30s, violet wands became popular as advertised cure-alls for a host of medical maladies. Today violet wands are still produced, but used mostly in alternative medicine practice.
What are Violet Wands?
Violet wands, also sometimes called violet-ray devices, are hand-held Tesla coil electrical transformers specially designed to safely stimulate the skin. Violet wands create sensation through a stream of low current, high-frequency electricity. Measuring about a foot long and with an electrical cord that plugs directly into a socket, the transformer is shaped like a missile and delivers a series of sparks through its nose cone.
Glass tube electrodes are designed to plug into the violet wand as accessories; the glass is most commonly purple, giving the violet wand its name.
Historical Treatments
Violet wands were once prescribed, however dubiously, for use in treatments of various diseases and discomforts, and their virtues were extolled by famous healer and psychic Edgar Cayce. According to a 1930s instruction manual for a then-contemporary violet wand, "all human ailments, with the exception of certain highly contagious and infectious diseases, can be traced to faulty circulation and impure blood."
Suggested treatments ranged from the innocuous (stimulation of skin) to the dangerous (stimulating the prostate by inserting a violet wand electrode into the rectum). In 1951, the Master Electrical Company was sued for libel in regard to mislabeling its violet wands as medical cures for various ailments, and the wands were ordered to be turned over to the Food & Drug Administration as contraband.
Violet wands continued to be manufactured abroad and enjoyed a brief resurgence as curiosities in the 1960s and '70s.
Contemporary Treatment Uses
Some holistic and alternative practitioners still use violet wands in hopes of relieving pain and swelling and treating local infections and acne. The wands emit ozone and small amounts of UV, which theoretically can kill bacteria but are of unproven medical value. Contemporary dermatologists sometimes use devices based upon violet ray technology to treat hair loss and for various cosmetology procedures.
The vast majority of violet wands available for sale today are antique collector's items. Extreme care should be used when using violet wands for any sort of self-administered medical treatment; on high settings, they can produce intense and even painful sensations.
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