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Duchenne's medical magneto-electrical machine
    • Setting:
      Room XVIII
    • Inventor:
      Guillaume Benjamin de Boulogne Duchenne
    • Maker:
      Deleuil firm
    • Place:
      Paris
    • Date:
      ca. 1870
    • Materials:
      mahogany, brass, iron
    • Dimensions:
      box 337x183x230 mm
    • Inventory:
      456
    • Duchenne's medical magneto-electrical machine (Inv. 456)
    • Duchenne's medical magneto-electrical machine (Inv. 456)

Apparatus for medical applications of electric current described by Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne de Boulogne. This portable version of his "magneto-Faradic double-current apparatus," made by the Deleuil firm, is housed in a mahogany box with brass carrying-bar. The coils are wound around the poles of a powerful compound permanent magnet. The current is generated by the rotation of the armature by a geared handle. The intensity of the current is regulated by two copper cylinders sliding on the coils, covering them to a greater or lesser extent. To obtain very weak currents, the armature is moved away from the magnet poles. The box for accessories contains two nickel-plated electrodes, into which can be screwed either the electrodes with conical points (which, in use, were covered with chamois leather), or two nickel-plated tubes terminating in metal brushes. These were applied to the patient's body.