The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American PDF
Preview The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American
The Body Electric .d e vre s e r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w e N .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. American History and Culture general editors Neil Foley, Kevin Gaines, Martha Hodes, and Scott Sandage Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Now? Multicultural Conservatism in America Angela D. Dillard One Nation Underground A History of the Fallout Shelter Kenneth D. Rose The Body Electric How Strange Machines Built the Modern American Carolyn Thomas de la Peña .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w e N .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. The Body Electric How Strange Machines Built the Modern American Carolyn Thomas de la Peña .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w eN a .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London © 2003 by New York University All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peña, Carolyn Thomas de la. The body electric : how strange machines built the modern American / Carolyn Thomas de la Peña p. ; cm. — (American history and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8147-1953-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Quacks and quackery—United States—History—19th century. 2. Quacks and quackery—United States—History—20th century. 3. Medical instruments and apparatus—United States—History— 19th century. 4. Medical instruments and apparatus—United States— History—20th century. 5. Electrotherapeutics—United States—History— 19th century. 6. Electrotherapeutics—United States—History— 20th century. [DNLM: 1. Electric Stimulation Therapy—history. 2. Exercise Therapy—history. 3. History of Medicine, 19th Cent. 4. History of Medicine, 20th Cent. WB 495 P397b 2003] I. Title. II. American history and culture (New York University Press) R730.P39 2003 615.8'56—dc21 2002155358 .d e Acknowledgment is made for permission to quote from the previously vrese published materials. r sth gir llA P“oDrutidolneys oAfl lcehna pStaerrg 2en ht a&ve Gpruesvtiaovu sZlya nadpepre:a Hreeda litnh Machines and the .sse Energized Male Body,” Research in the Philosophy of Technology rP (Summer 2002). ytisre “Recharging at the Fordyce: Confronting Machine and Nature in the vin Modern Bath,” Technology and Culture40 (October 1999). U kroY P“oRretaiodninsg o fE clhecatprtiecr B4 ehltasv: e Sperxe,v iTouecshlyn oaplopgeya,r eadn idn the Modern Male w e Body,” Journal of Design History14, no. 4 (2001). N .3 0 02 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, © th and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. g irypo Manufactured in the United States of America C 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. Contents Acknowledgments vii Preface xi Introduction 1 1 The Machine-Built Body 15 2 Measuring Mechanical Strength 50 .d e vre 3 Exploring Electric Limits 89 se r sthg 4 Powering the Intimate Body 137 ir llA .sse 5 “Radiomania” Limits the Energy Dream 171 rP ytisre Conclusion: The End of an Era? 213 vin U kro Y w e Notes 223 N .3 0 0 2 © Bibliography 293 th g iryp Index 321 o C About the Author 329 v Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w e N .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. Acknowledgments I could not have written this without Elizabeth Ihrig, the li- brarian at the Bakken Library and Museum of Electricity in Life in Min- neapolis. It was Elizabeth who, while I was there on a visiting research fellowship in 1999, suggested that I might want to take a look at a cou- ple of uncataloged boxes of electrotherapy “ephemera.” The brochures and business records that I found in those boxes first convinced me that I could tell this story, in spite of the few published secondary sources on the subject. I would like to also thank David Rhees, executive director of the Bakken for his early support of my work on popular electrotherapy, and the Bakken staff for serving as an enthusiastic and critical first audi- ence for this work. Jan Todd served as a skillful guide through the Todd-McLean Physical Culture Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. It was my good fortune to have close at hand this rich collection of books, pamphlets, .d magazines, and business records detailing the history of physical training. e vrese I also benefited from the time and materials provided by several research r sth fellowships. I spent a wonderful month in the summer of 1998 enjoying g ir llA the intellectual and botanical riches of the Huntington Library in .sse Pasadena, California. My thanks to the Huntington trustees for the rP ytisre Fenleetrcghieesr iJnotnoe tsh Fiso purnodjaetcito dnu Frienllgo wthsahti pcr itthicaat la tlilmowe.ed me to put all of my vin U I am also indebted to William Baxter and the staff of the Dibner Li- kroY brary at the Smithsonian for their assistance during a 1999 visiting re- w eN search fellowship. I completed much of my work on electrotherapy and .3 00 radium in the Dibner’s beautiful reading room. 2 © th Additionally, the Helfand Fellowship from the New York Academy of g iryp Medicine provided financial support for the last stages of research. My o C two weeks at the academy yielded several treasures and allowed me to present my work on electric belts for the first time. vii Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. viii | Acknowledgments I would also like to thank the overworked archivists at the American Medical Association who doggedly unearthed box after box from the Historical Health Fraud Collection (HHFC). The HHFC is a rich source of materials on alternative medical practices of the past century; it is un- fortunate that the fees to see these documents make it prohibitive for those without institutional funding to use them. I hope my work leads others to request improved access to the association’s documents. Finally, thank you to the University of Texas for its support through multiple travel and research fellowships, particularly for the year of fund- ing through the Continuing Fellowship program in 1998. Archivists provided the textual resources essential for this project; my mentors, friends, and family provided the emotional ones. Thank you to my dissertation committee for critical comments that made this book a better one than I could write. In particular, I would like to thank Jan Todd for an encyclopedic knowledge of physical culture that she brought to the first two chapters of this project. It is Jeff Meikle, however, to whom I owe the biggest debt of gratitude. Jeff has always encouraged me to be- lieve that this project was doable, fundable, and finishable. His wide- ranging knowledge about American modernism and technology gave me direction throughout and helped me place my story within a larger cul- tural framework. And his inimitable editing skills repeatedly found and solved problems conceptual and grammatical. I could not have asked for a more committed, knowledgeable, and supportive mentor. I am fortunate to have among my friends some of the best American .d Studies minds on the planet. Joel Dinerstein and Siva Vaidyanathan are e vrese two of them; their early support convinced me that I would survive grad- r sth uate school and complete this project. Kim Hewitt helped brew my ideas g ir llA through countless conversations about medicine, the body, and our shift- .sse ing cultural perceptions of the normal. Without Christina Cogdell, I rP ytisre mwoiguhltd bbee tdhoiinnkgi nitg w aibtho uat P thh.iDs .p irno hjeacnt dr.i gThhta nnokws ,t ob uotu ri ty iesa rd oouf blatpfutol pth baat t-I vin U tleship in Austin coffeehouses, we managed to finish dissertations, land kroY jobs in the sunny state, and rethink some of the assumptions of American w eN modernism. Thank you also to Maureen Reed. Her intelligence, incom- .3 00 parable organizational skills, and unfaltering support have continually 2 © th pushed me to create things better than I thought possible. g iryp I thank my colleagues in American Studies at UC Davis, who are fine o C teachers, admirable scholars, and generous editors. Thank you particu- larly to Kay Clare Allen for providing inspiration; to my research assis- Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. Acknowledgments | ix tant Erin McClelland for meticulous work and ample good cheer; and to Sarah Projansky, Vicki Mayer, Joanne Barker, Lara Downes, and Sophie Volpp for unlimited encouragement through the revision process. I am also grateful to Kent Ono, friend and mentor, for commenting on a draft when he had absolutely no time to do it. My final debts are to my family, past and present. Thank you to my Mimi, Gertrude Vade Bon Coeur. Though she did not live to see this pro- ject completed, she gave me the gumption to do it. Thank you to my fa- ther, Gary Thomas, for teaching me that learning requires the courage to disagree. Thank you to my mother- and father-in-law, Ardith and Joe de la Peña, for being so proud of my work that it is impossible to fail. Thank you especially to my mother, Catherine Vade Bon Coeur, who has always helped me dream big dreams that somehow come true. And finally, to David de la Peña, master editor and right brain to my left; thank you for immeasurably improving my life and my work. I dedicate this to you, and to our daughter, Sofia. May we always have the energy to create a world of our own design. .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w e N .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40. .d e vre se r sth g ir llA .sse rP ytisre vin U kro Y w e N .3 0 0 2 © th g iryp o C Pena, Carolyn Thomas de la. The Body Electric : How Strange Machines Built the Modern American, New York University Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=865997. Created from nyulibrary-ebooks on 2021-03-13 12:28:40.
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