THE ELECTROPOISE (Part of the Quackery Collection), 1910's

Hercules Sanche was the inventor of the Electropoise (shown) and the Oxydonor, both claiming to do the same thing.

The device was very simple, consisting of a chrome or nickel plated sealed metal cylinder. If opened the contents could be sand or carbon, or in most cases nothing at all. Cloth wrapped wires led from each end with a metal plate of copper or aluminium attached to the ends of the cylinder.

Users of diaduction (a word coined by Sanche to describe the so called benefits of oxygen being absorbed through the skin) placed the metal plates on their body with elastic bands and placed the cylinders in a bowl of water.

In 1915 the US Post Office prevented Dr Sanche's gadgets from passing through the mail system, this did not stop his production of many Quackery items. He moved around the country avoiding prosecution for 33 years. In 1952 he was still operating in Florida.

Bruce Hammond Collection

Your comments:

• Dr. Sanche's son-in-law Ben Simmons owned the bait and tackle store in Riviera Beach where Sanche's products were sold or produced. He apparently had some ointment or balm that he also sold. They used to mix it with trowels on the same table on which fish were gutted and filleted. The store was Simmons Bait & Tackle and it was at the north-western foot of the bridge between Singer Island and mainland Riviera Beach. Mr. Simmons was a notorious old time bootlegger from Detroit, later a rum runner in Florida. His store was on the intra coastal waterway, only a short distance from the Lake Worth Inlet. Presumably the store's location facilitate the aforementioned smuggling operations. He was my grandfather
  .......... S. Simmons, USA, 12th of February 2015
  
  

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