[UA] Old Clockwork?

[John Tynes]

(forwarded from another mailing list)

'MIRACLE MACHINE' BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE

Think the current claims that magnets will cure everything from a bad 
back 
to fallen arches are preposterous? Obviously, you haven't seen the Holtz 
Electro Therapy Machine at work. But, then, neither has anyone else for 
the 
last century or so. Now, thanks to the folks planning to restore several 
old buildings on downtown Main Street, Holtz's "miracle machine" is once 
again available to work its magic. Or at least induce a few laughs at the 
extent to which quack medicine held sway in the late 19th and early 20th 
centuries.

The elaborate device was constructed by the Frank S. Betz Co. of Chicago, 
and a historic photo exists showing a "patient" sitting next to the 
machine 
and another man, presumably the "doctor," waving a wand over his head 
that 
is connected to the machine by a wire.

The machine was found stashed in a dark, filthy corner on the second 
floor 
of the old Karrick Building, 238 S. Main. Research by Salt Lake firm MHTN 
Architects reveals that the owner, Lewis G. Karrick, operated a gambling 
hall on the second floor and a brothel on the third, remnants of which 
still remain. Karrick was also the president of National Bank of the 
Republic, which later became Continental Bank, and was renovated last 
year 
into the Hotel Monaco.

"He (Karrick) would apparently take the proceeds (from the casino and 
brothel) and just walk them next door to his bank," said Mark R. de Bry 
of 
MHTN, which is working on the restoration plans for the building.

Another tenant of the building, State Medical Company, also operated on 
the 
same level as the casino a century ago, and it was apparently this 
business 
that offered the Holtz treatment.

The machine, about five feet long and six feet high including its 
elaborate 
wooden stand, resembles a large European music box or player piano (which 
is what the finders originally thought it was). It used large, circular 
copper plates, separated by glass insulators, that would revolve, 
creating 
high-voltage electricity.

Static electricity, really, with very low amperage that, mercifully, 
meant 
the patient would get a big shock but live to pay the doctor his bill.

"We did some research on it and found it was supposed to cure everything 
from baldness to infertility," said de Bry of MHTN, which also is 
restoring 
the Karrick Building's neighbor, the Lollin Building, for their new 
owners, 
Hamilton Partners, a Chicago development firm.

Hamilton bought all of the buildings between the Hotel Monaco on the 
corner 
of Main and 200 South and the David Keith Building to the south (see 
related story) and is doing preparatory work that will eventually result 
in 
their being restored and converted into residential condominiums.

This will take considerable investment. Someone years ago removed several 
supporting columns that caused the second and third floors to sag as much 
as four inches in the center. The floors were then "overbuilt" to level 
them out. The building currently is supported on the second floor by a 
framework of steel truss beams installed to keep the whole thing from 
collapsing.

To research the Holtz machine, MHTN contacted the proprietor of "The 
Museum 
of Questionable Medical Devices," also known as "The Quackery Hall of 
Fame," in Minneapolis. David G. Rickert, a representative of the 
"Quackatorium," has identified the machine as a Holtz and says they were 
popular between 1890 and 1910.

"At that time," he said, "electricity (especially high-voltage sparks) 
were 
seen as quite mysterious and magical, so people wanted to believe it was 
a 
miracle." Rickert says the machine is quite a rare device because of its 
size and fragility.

The owners haven't yet decided what to do with the machine, but they've 
been talking to the quackery museum and also to the Utah State Historical 
Society, which is interested in acquiring it.

<- John Tynes - rev at tccorp.com - http://www.John.Tynes.com/ ->
Most roleplaying games are like five-dollar whores. CALL OF
CTHULHU is like a five-hundred-dollar whore with a pimp who may
burst into the room at any moment and shoot you in the face.


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