Boyd’s Batteries Collection plus links to more info 2 2

[Mr_Spud]

Besides coins, I also collect old medicine bottles, quack medicine devices and old medical and scientific instruments and books about these things. Boyd’s Batteries, a quack medical device from the late 1800s, are often considered to be numismatic tokens similar to So-called dollars so they have double appeal to me.

They were galvanic batteries made by having disks of different metals that created a small electric current when exposed to sweat when worn as a necklace and were touted to be able to cure all kinds of diseases.

Below are pictures of my collection of Boyd’s Batteries and related stuff. And here are some links to websites with even more info on them https://www.wordcraft.net/magneticbattery.html halfway down the page on the next one https://archive.org/stream/tamsjournal27n6toke/tamsjournal27n6toke_djvu.txt

The first 2 are the a little smaller than the 3rd and 4th (note- these 2 are the same size, I just shrunk the first one to get some of the chain in the picture). The 5th one is a competitor made shortly thereafter in Canada.
 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Mr_Spud
Fix typos

[Mr_Spud]

And here is the pamphlet that came with the batteries

[Mr_Spud]

And here’s the first few pages of the book that was for people who were really into these

 

[Mr_Spud]

Here’s a couple more pages from the book

[zadok]

...interesting exonumia tangent to numismatics, n there r so many of these avenues to explore when coins get boring...the "phenomena" of galvanic reactions mesmerized the uninformed in the late 1800s n early 1900s n actually continues in some ways today with internet n tv ads extolling the medical benefits of wearing galvanic n even more so magnetic bracelets etc....

[EarlyUS.com]

Not long ago, I got to catalog this auction listing for nine Boyd's Batteries plus a Dr. Cooper's battery .  One of them came with an original NGC slab insert.

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by EarlyUS.com

[zadok]

On 5/17/2023 at 1:51 PM, Annysey said:

Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, people may have been mesmerized by galvanic reactions, but come on)) it's not the same already... We've got the internet and TV bombarding us with ads about the so-called "medical benefits" of wearing galvanic and magnetic bracelets, with no solid scientific evidence.
So let's not get carried away with these pseudo-scientific phenomena. I mean let us stick to the facts and leave the galvanic and magnetic bracelets for those who want to believe in such things.

...i thought parens usually came in pairs...must have lost their polarity ....

[Mr_Spud]

On 5/17/2023 at 11:40 AM, EarlyUS.com said:

Not long ago, I got to catalog this auction listing for nine Boyd's Batteries plus a Dr. Cooper's battery .  One of them came with an original NGC slab insert.

 

Cool. I’ll have to keep an eye out for one of those Dr. Cooper ones, thanks 🌞

[Just Bob]

The above spam post by Annysey has been reported to the mods.

[Henri Charriere]

I am not qualified to appraise spam, per se, but I would be curious to know if copper bracelets fall under the broad umbrella of quackery like the explosive growth of CBD Gummies all of which contain microprinted disclaimers baldly stating none have an FDA endorsement and no representation is made as to their medical benefits.