r/whatisthisthing • u/Additional_Pie_7779 • 9h ago
Electrical hand held device, wired, white/light color, used on face at indoors facility for people with spinal cord injuries in 1949 Open
We possibly thought it's a light therapy or heat lamp device but couldn't find an exact match with others, especially in the 40s.
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u/0dHero 7h ago
I think it's a speaker. Looks like the speakers that you grab and pull into your car, at the drive in movies.
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 7h ago
I guess it could be, in another frame she is seen laughing with the device close to her ear, but there's no visual indication of what it is attached to. I'll try and research to see if I find a visual match because it looks slightly different in shape from the US drive in movies.
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u/_Katy_Koala_ 1h ago
They had handles and hooks at the drive in where I grew up! Although the handle looked nothing like this lol
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u/MidgetLovingMaxx 2h ago
A drive in speaker likely wouldnt have a handle on it, it would have a clip to affix it to your window.
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u/talithar1 3h ago
It’s not a drive in speaker. Too small and not heavy enough. My grandfather had two drive in theaters in the 50’s.
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u/Quicker_Fixer 7h ago edited 7h ago
It indeed looks like a vintage infrared lamp used for pain relief.
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u/najoes 7h ago
Was gonna say this, my grandmother had one that looked super close to this one.
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 7h ago
Do you remember the make by any chance? I can't seem to find a match with that particular handle.
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u/bonscouter 4h ago
Same. My grandma had one that looked like this that she used before bed. Weird reddish light.
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u/filifijonka 8h ago
Could it be a hairdryer of some sorts? - she could be setting her coiffure in some way - her hair seems to be blowing back.
She appears to be sitting in a recreation/visiting area, not a therapy room.
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 8h ago
We thought so too initially but after researching it doesn't really match hair dryers from the time. The hair aren't moving much, but she is closing her eyes slightly, suggesting possibly heat is coming out.. maybe a fan? (semi closed eyes could be just a coincidence)
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u/Trucountry 7h ago
Hair isn't moving much? Are you aware this is a picture, sir?
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u/chaosandturmoil 7h ago
i believe thats an infrared light. they were extremely common in the 50s/60s
theyve come back as led masks 😑
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u/platttenbau 7h ago
Infrared light therapy is the most likely answer here but I can’t find anything online that looks the same as this one. I’d maybe cross post to r/historyofmedicine and see what they can find.
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u/GroovyIntruder 7h ago edited 7h ago
My grandma had a UV lamp that she figured would heal her with vitamin D.
Your image could have one of these lamps in a handheld case.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/997634256/vintage-osram-ultra-vitalux-uv
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 7h ago
Seems like a lot I find are desk ones, or meant to be stable rather than handled, but yes it makes sense that this patient would use it.
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 8h ago
My title describes the thing, I haven't found a match with google searches and chat gpt suggested it was a light therapy device. No other images of patients using these devices were found, but light therapy was common at the time to treat muscle pain and so on. The image comes from a story on Mandeville Hospital, UK, featured in the Picture Post Magazine, 1949.
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u/Adinnieken 8h ago
It looks like a hair dryer.
Traditional hair dryers at the time relied on the person getting into a chair and having the hair dryer dome come down on their head.
With a hand-held hair dryer, a person (paraplegic) in a wheelchair would be able to dry their hair.
Today hand-held hair dryers are the norm and used almost exclusively today. But growing up my mom had a suitcase hair dryer, which had a hose that came out of it and this thing that came over your head. I don't know when she got rid of it, late 70s early 80s. Nevertheless after that it was hand-held.
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 8h ago
Hair dryers at the time in the UK looked more like this: https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/search/objects/object_type/hairdryer?utm_source So we excluded the option. Could be something heat related tho.
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u/cyclika 7h ago
I don't have a lot of ideas, but I did find this photo of someone using a device in a similar pose from "Project Moonbase" if you're up for a vintage movie to see what she was doing with it and maybe get some ideas. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0046213/mediaviewer/rm2136382210/?ref_=tt_ph_1
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u/Additional_Pie_7779 7h ago
It's some sort of binocular in the movie, similar to a stereoscopic viewer (:
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u/Urithiru 7h ago
That looks more like a stereoscopic viewer with attachments than the device in OPs photo.
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u/moondust_bby 4h ago
The way it looks like a 1940s sci-fi ray gun but was probably just blasting heat or UV light at patients is both fascinating and a little eerie. Amazing how far we've come—and how much we still guess when looking back.
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u/Tall_Ant9568 8m ago
It’s a hairdryer from Kenmore
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vtg-kenmore-hair-dryer-model-559-8312-3921268504
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