Editing Albert Abrams (section)

==Electronic Reactions of Abrams==
{{main|Radionics}}

Abrams promoted an idea that [[electrons]] were the basic element of all life. He called this '''ERA''', for '''Electronic Reactions of Abrams''', and introduced a number of different machines which he claimed were based on these principles.

===The machines===
[[File:Oscilloclast (FDA 143) (8225257144).jpg|thumb|Oscilloclast]]
[[File:Radioclast dials.jpg|thumb|Radioclast]]
The Dynomizer looked something like a [[radio]], and Abrams claimed it could diagnose any known [[disease]] from a single drop of [[blood]] or alternatively the subject's handwriting.<ref name=JMAW/> He performed diagnoses on dried blood samples sent to him on pieces of paper in envelopes through the mail. Apparently Abrams even claimed he could conduct medical practice over the [[telephone]] with his machines,<ref>{{cite book
|title=New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment|author=Albert Abrams|year=1922|publisher=Physico-Clinical Co
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNOAOd2dAWkC&q=New+concepts+in+diagnosis+and+treatment
}}</ref> and that he could determine [[wikt:personality|personality]] characteristics.

The Dynomizer was big business; by 1918, courses in spondylotherapy and ERA cost $200 (about the same purchasing power as $3,150 in 2014); equipment was leased at about $200 with a monthly $5 charge thereafter. The lessee had to sign a contract stating the device would never be opened.<ref>[http://www.seanet.com/~raines/abrams.html Dr. Albert Abrams and the E.R.A.<!-- bot-generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060716084138/http://www.seanet.com/~raines/abrams.html|date=2006-07-16}} at www.seanet.com</ref> Abrams explained that this would disrupt their delicate adjustment, but the rule also served to prevent the Abrams devices from being examined. He then widened his claims to treating the diagnosed diseases. Abrams came up with new and even more impressive gadgets, the "Oscilloclast"<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/abrams/a11.gif| title = Oscilloclast}}</ref> and the "Radioclast", which came with tables of [[frequencies]] that were designed to "attack" specific diseases. Clients were told cures required repeated treatments.

Dynomizer operators tended to give alarming diagnoses, involving combinations of such maladies as [[cancer]], [[diabetes]] and [[syphilis]]. Abrams often included a disease called "bovine syphilis", unknown to other medical practitioners. He claimed the Oscilloclast was capable of defeating most of these diseases, most of the time.

By 1921, there were claimed to be 3,500 practitioners using ERA technology. Conventional medical practitioners were extremely suspicious.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GLIxAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Albert+Abrams%22+3,500| title = CA: A Journal for Cancer Clinicians, 1950| last1 = Cameron| first1 = Charles S.| year = 1994}}</ref> When people opened Abrams's boxes, they found "simple wiring, a few resistors, a small motor that only made a humming noise, and nothing that could in any way perform a diagnosis or 'broadcast' or even produce radio waves."<ref name="randi-1995">{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |title=[[An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural|An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities]] |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-15119-5 |location=New York, NY|author-link=James Randi}}</ref>

In the 1970s, Bob DeVries, a product designer for [[Hewlett-Packard]], had a chance to repair an old Oscilloclast (1934). It was owned by a lady whose father had been a president of Abrams' Electronic Medical Foundation and improver of their devices; she had several such devices and believed that electric therapy to be beneficial, from her own experience. DeVries not only restored the old oscilloclast to working order, but also developed a [[transistor]]ized version for his client, which they called a "Pulsed Oscillator".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hpmemory.org/timeline/bob_devries/some_memories_06.htm#part_06_chapt_14 |title=[Medical consulting using low-level RF treatment]. Remembering |last=DeVries |first=Bob |website=HP Memory Project |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103003452/http://www.hpmemory.org/timeline/bob_devries/some_memories_06.htm#part_06_chapt_14 |archive-date=2015-01-03}}</ref>