METHUSELAH ARCHIVE SOURCES / OVERBECK-DIRECTIONS-SUPREME-MODEL-1938

Overbeck's rejuvenator, supreme model: directions for use

period print · 1938
type:period print
year:1938
citation: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.
LINK
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/eyw4gamr
SUMMARY
The Rejuvenator's own illustrated directions booklet, the primary period artifact for the device. Held by the Wellcome Collection (work id eyw4gamr; digitised images released under the Public Domain Mark) and produced in Grimsby in 1938 by Overbeck's Rejuvenator Ltd, the company that continued the business after Overbeck's 1937 death. Its 28 pages set out how to assemble and operate the apparatus (battery, red connecting cords, and interchangeable rod, comb, and plate electrodes at high, medium, or low power) and prescribe electrode placements for a range of complaints, the practical expression of the 'electronic theory of life.' This source supplies two media assets for the case: the page-3 directions opening 'Directions for using the Supreme Model Rejuvenator' (artifact) and the page-9 photographic illustration of the device with its battery and electrodes (object). Rights read from the Wellcome work record (Public Domain Mark) via the catalogue API and IIIF manifest; the device images are the company's own, with no named identification of any person, so the captions follow the booklet's own descriptions.
NOTES

The Supreme Model directions booklet for Overbeck’s Rejuvenator, digitised by the Wellcome Collection (work eyw4gamr, b-number b3346411x) under the Public Domain Mark and dated 1938. It is used here as the primary record of the product in its own words and as the source of two case images: the directions heading page and a photograph of the device showing its battery case and electrodes. The booklet describes the apparatus as having three power strengths and a set of interchangeable electrodes applied to the body according to the complaint, and it instructs the user to test the battery weekly with a voltmeter, confirming the low-voltage, milliampere-scale nature of the device. Produced in Grimsby by Overbeck’s Rejuvenator Ltd, the company that carried on after Otto Overbeck’s death in 1937. Catalogue metadata (title, 28 pages, illustrations, 1938, Grimsby) and the Public Domain Mark rights posture confirmed against the Wellcome catalogue API.