Here’s
a challenge for you: name an inventor of an electrical device from before the
Second World War. Who springs to mind?
Thomas Edison? Graham Bell? Maybe William Sturgeon, Samuel Morse or Alessandro
Volta? If you’ve been caught up in the recent surge of near-mythological interest
in Nikola Tesla maybe you think of him? Well here’s one person on the list who you’ve
probably never heard of: Otto Christoph Joseph Gerhardt Ludwig Overbeck.
Overbeck was a man of many interests, and during his life he was a chemist,
inventor, curio-collector, writer, artist and, most notably, a self-proclaimed
discoverer of the key to youth and vitality. The device with which he believed
he had unlocked the secret of a long and healthy life was the Overbeck
Rejuvenator, and armed with a qualified fascination in science and a canny
business mind he marketed one of the most commercially successful
electrotherapy devices ever made.
Born
in 1860, the son of a Vatican priest, Overbeck began his career as a chemist, studying
the subject at University College London until 1881. After becoming a Fellow of
the Chemical Society in 1888 he went on to work at a brewery in Grimsby as
scientific director. Here he was responsible for a few interesting
developments, including an early attempt at making alcohol-free beer and a food
extract product called Carnos which was in fact a forerunner to Marmite. Even at this stage he had begun a rigorous
habit of patenting everything he thought would become a successful invention,
Carnos being his first, which would become a staple of his approach for years
to come. His broad interest in science was evident in his personal library,
which included books not only on chemistry but biology and geology among
numerous other subjects. Such was his enthusiasm that he claimed at one point
to have discovered an element new to science.
Self-portrait (1902)
In
the following years leading up to the development of his most famous invention,
the Rejuvenator, Overbeck became increasingly interested in the prospect of
restoring youth, seeking a sort of “elixir” with which he could help people
live longer with better health. His artistic side demonstrated this in a poem written
in 1889 called “The Alchemist”…
“Yet one more drop,
& now! What do I see!
The forms of early
youth! Forgotten dreams to me;
Rise with the misty
clouds from age’s wintry rime;
and boyhood’s joy
& health & summer clime
With scent of roses
fills the air!
Old age be-gone!
For eternal youth prepare!”
He was a strong believer in the
idea that electricity was the unifying key to not only life but the entire
universe, and whilst electrotherapy was not a new idea at the time Overbeck was
very keen to demonstrate its benefits to human health. In 1924 he took out a patent for an “Electric
Multiple Body Comb for Use All Over the Body”, the first patent relating to the
invention of the Overbeck Rejuvenator. The Rejuvenator consisted of insulated
metal combs which, when connected to a battery, applied a weak electrical
current to the area of the body the combs were in brought into contact with. The
patent made no reference to rejuvenating properties, but nevertheless the
product was intensely marketed as a medical miracle. Overbeck frequently backed
up his advertising with testimonials from satisfied customers, with such
whimsical quotes as:
“…elderly members of an east
coast golf club have practised with the rejuvenator, and their handicap has
been halved, and they can play three rounds as against two formerly.”
“I have been using your Rejuvenator for about five
months…and have found it of great benefit. I was suffering from Neuritis, but
[am] pleased to say I have scarcely felt any pain this winter. I have worn
spectacles for 25 years, and now my eyes are wonderfully improved…my hair,
which was white, is being replaced with new dark hair. I think your Rejuvenator
is a wonderful invention.”
In 1925 he published a book on
the subject, “A New Electronic Theory of Life”, in which he presented the
importance of electricity in conventional medicine. He cited numerous eminent
scientists of the time to back up his ideas, but he also frequently referred to
the Rejuvenator itself throughout as a cunning marketing strategy. This was a
rolling theme in the promotion of his device: using his position as a scientist
as a role of authority through which he could persuade people to buy the
Rejuvenator. Overbeck claimed it could treat all kinds of ailments from asthma
to psoriasis, and the BMA (British Medical Association) was becoming
increasingly concerned that the layman would start to ignore conventional
medicine in favour of this “easy fix” which had so far not shown much, if any,
quantifiable medical success. A model of the device was acquired for testing,
and they found that whilst the device was not necessarily dangerous there was
potential for its misuse to cause ulcers in the mouth. More worryingly, there
was good reason to believe that people using this form of alternative treatment
to treat chronic conditions like diabetes would put off seeking established
medical advice until it was too late.
The Overbeck Rejuvenator was sold
across the British Empire and had a number of variants at prices starting at
around 6 guineas. Overbeck even adjusted his advertising campaigns depending on
where it was being sold in order to further publicise it, encouraging users in
the Colonies to write back to him about their experiences. One of the key parts
of the Rejuvenator’s marketing was a focus on its ability to treat certain
conditions that people felt embarrassed to talk about, such as hair loss. So
successful was the device that he was able to buy a house in Salcombe, Devon
(now a National Trust site dedicated to his work and collections), where he was
able to engage in his other passions of curio-collecting, art, music, natural history
and all other manners of hobbies and interests. But soon the Rejuvenator would
begin to lose traction as Overbeck’s advertising strategies came under fire
from the scientific community…
Demonstration of the Rejuvenator
as a treatment for hair loss.
Investigations were mounted by
the BMA in the early 1930s to contact members who had been apparently quoted in
the Rejuvenator’s advertising campaigns in Australia and elsewhere.
Intriguingly many of the responses said that whilst they had bought the
devices, they had not given permission for their opinions (genuine or not) to
be published. Some outright denied any involvement with the company and
demanded an official explanation. A number of attempts were made to ban the Rejuvenator
on both medical and legal grounds, but none seemed to be successful (probably
in part due to the ruthless patenting and numerous user testimonies which
protected the device). Otto Overbeck died in 1937, but the device remained on
the market up until the Second World War, when resources needed to build it
became too difficult to acquire. Amazingly however, over 30 years after he
filed the original patent for the product, in 1955 an order for a new battery
to power an Overbeck Rejuvenator was received by one of his associates.
Whilst the Overbeck Rejuvenator
was not proven to be of any real benefit to health (despite its inventor’s
insistence), it was one of a number of early electrical devices to appear in
British homes and elsewhere which aided the mainstream acceptance of a
relatively new and revolutionary power source. It also provided a valuable
lesson of the power of advertising, especially when coupled with the authority
of science to persuade the public to buy a product. This is a theme that
continues to this day, see how many toothpaste adverts feature an interview
with dentists! Overbeck may have been mistaken in his faith of medicinal electricity,
he may have even known it was of little use and was simply a very good seller
of his contraption, but one thing remains certain: his multi-disciplinary life story
is one of both eccentricity and intrigue.