Life consists of appropriate amounts of electricity stored within and passing between the different parts of the body, so that illness is an imbalance of that bodily electricity which can be corrected by applying small electric currents from outside.
The foundational mechanism claim behind the Rejuvenator, set out in Overbeck’s 1925 book A New Electronic Theory of Life and summarized in James F. Stark’s 2014 history: that life is electrical in nature, that the body holds and circulates a ‘balance of electricity,’ and that topping up or rebalancing it with externally applied currents restores health and vitality. The directions booklet operationalized the theory by mapping electrode placements and power settings to specific complaints. It is refuted: physiology recognizes bioelectric phenomena (nerve and muscle action potentials) but not a stored, depletable whole-body ‘electrical balance’ that a battery and comb electrode could replenish, and the milliampere-scale currents the device delivered have no such effect. Classified mechanism_only: a theory of cause that was never substantiated by any measurable endpoint, and that the British investigation of the apparatus found unsupported.
Appears in
Sources
- 'Recharge My Exhausted Batteries': Overbeck's Rejuvenator, Patenting, and Public Medical Consumers, 1924-37 — Stark, James F. "'Recharge My Exhausted Batteries': Overbeck's Rejuvenator, Patenting, and Public Medical Consumers, 1924-37." Medical History 58, no. 4 (2014): 498-518. doi:10.1017/mdh.2014.50. PMID 25284892. PMC4176268.
- Overbeck's rejuvenator, supreme model: directions for use — Overbeck's rejuvenator, supreme model : directions for use / manufactured and distributed by Overbeck's Rejuvenator Ltd. Grimsby: Overbeck's Rejuvenator Ltd, 1938. 28 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm. Wellcome Collection, work eyw4gamr (b3346411x). Public Domain Mark.