POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Electroconvulsive therapy machine

Object No. 2005/7/1

Electric shock has been used as a treatment for mental illnesses since the 1930s. Even in ancient times it was noticed that convulsions and high fever could improve mental disturbances. It was between 1917 and 1935 that convulsions (or 'seizures') deliberately produced by chemical or electrical means were first used to treat psychoses. The success of these treatments led to a wide acceptance of the view that mental illnesses had a biological basis. Electroconvulsive therapy became an important method of biological treatment in psychiatry through the 1940s and 1950s. Even though this kind of treatment has been controversial and fallen out of favour in some parts of the world, it is nevertheless still regarded in Australia, for example, as one of the safest and most useful treatments for severe depression. It is interesting to find that Both Pty Ltd, a small but innovative Australian manufacturer of electronic and electrical medical equipment, produced electroconvulsive therapy units. The company was originally formed in Adelaide in the 1930s by brothers Edward (E.T.) and Donald Both. E.T. Both was a prolific inventor who devised equipment for everything from sporting events to Second World War weaponry. His first notable medical device was a direct-writing portable electrocardiograph but he is probably most well known for the 'Both' portable cabinet respirator, an inexpensive alternative to the Drinker 'iron lung' for paralysed poliomyelitis patients, first produced in Adelaide during the polio epidemics of the late 1930s. The Powerhouse Museum holds several examples of 'Both' equipment in addition to the electroconvulsive therapy unit. They include electrocardiographs, a cabinet respirator and an X-ray machine. References: Sackheim, Harold A., Devanand, D.P., & Nobler, Mitchell S., Electroconvulsive therapy, Psychopharmacology - The Fourth Generation of Progress, The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology http://www.acnp.org/g4/gn401000108/ch106.html (12 August 2004) Sabbatini, Renato M.E., The history of shock therapy in psychiatry, Brain & Mind Electronic Magazine on Neuroscience http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n04/historia/shock_i.htm (12 August 2004) Powerhouse Museum 'Innovations' research file number 0025 'Both'.

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Summary

Object Statement

Electroconvulsive therapy machine, in case, plastic / metal / electrical components, made by Both Equipment Pty Ltd, Sydney, used at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, probably 1955-1965

Physical Description

The purpose of electroconvulsive, or 'electroshock', machines is to induce a generalized seizure by applying an electric current to a patient as treatment for various mental illnesses, notably depression. This 'Both' machine is a portable unit enclosed in a suitcase-like box with leather handle. The lid unclips to reveal a control panel. Dials and knobs on the panel are marked with their purpose. A telephone dial works as a timer. There is an elastic strap inside the lid to secure both the unit's electrical flex and a pink plastic headband that would hold the electrodes in place on the patient's head.

DIMENSIONS

Height

210 mm

Width

330 mm

Depth

300 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

Made by Both Equipment Pty Ltd, in Adelaide & Sydney, Australia.

HISTORY

Notes

This unit and another one like it were found by staff of the hospital Engineering Department while cleaning out the back sheds behind Wagga Wagga Base Hospital in 2002. Presumably these machines had been used in the psychiatric ward on the hospital grounds. The hospital biomedical engineers estimated the date of the machine to be late 1940s to late 1950s whereas, judging from the look of the fittings, Megan Hicks estimates mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

SOURCE

Credit Line

Gift of Engineering Department, Wagga Wagga Base Hospital, 2004

Acquisition Date

7 January 2005

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