Around 1926, Dr. Wigelsworth and his company, the Pathometric Corporation, produced the Pathoclast, of which a number of models were manufactured during ensuing years. It differed from previous equipment in two significant respects -- the use of variable condensors for tuning, and the inclusion of vacuum tubes for amplification.
Tuning was accomplished by means of a large dial for each variable condenser, the dials were calibrated 0 to 100 in 1 or 2 degree divisions. There were two dials per tuning row, and two or three rows, depending upon the model. On a 2 row instrument, the upper row could be used for condition tuning rates and the lower row for visceral (organ) tuning rates. A tuning rate encompassed settings of both left and right hand dials; with each dial capable of being set at any of 100 positions, the total possible number of tuning rates per row therefore was 100 x 100 or a total of 10000; while this may seem to be quite a large number, yet it falls far short of the million-plus combinations possible with a tuning row on the Calbro Magnowave, which incorporated 6 dials each of which could be set anywhere from zero to 10 in unit steps. Many tuning rates used on the Calbro Magnowave and successor instruments had no representation on the Pathoclast so could not be used on it or on any condensor-tuned equipment.
Since the tuning equipment was fundamentally different for condensor tuned apparatus, the tuning rates were not transferable from one type of instrument to the other. Nevertheless, within the scope of tuning usable on condenser-tuned equipment, much valuable diagnostic and therapeutic work could he done by an operator experienced in the use of that type of equipment.
Some years later, Mr. T. G. Hieronymous, an electrical engineer, developed the Electro-Biometer, which incorporated a number of improvements over the Pathoclast, and was the most advanced condenser-tuned radionic instrument ever made. It included facilities for charging vials of water with a radionic treatment rate selected for the patient. The rate-charged water could then be given to the patient to drink or administered by hypodermic injection. Treatment rates could also be given from the instrument in the customary manner, with the treatment output being led by wires to electrodes placed on the body surface.
Both the Pathoclast and the Electro-Biometer used vacuum tubes for amplification. It was hoped by many and believed by some, that the vacuum tubes amplified the radiations from the patient which [17] were utilised in the radionic diagnosis, but this was never proven. In fact, quite a few operators found they could use the equipment for diagnostic analysis just as effectively when the power supply current was shut off. Since the application of the house current was necessary to activate the vacuum tubes, this indicated that the use of tubes did not actually improve the sensitivity of the equipment in receiving and making manifest the radiations from the patients. Electricity plays no part in the operation of the true radionic detection equipment.
AMPLIFICATION FOR TREATMENT
There was a greater element of success in the use of vacuum tubes to intensify the treatment current. It was round that when this amplification was used, treatment time was considerably shortened, both as to the duration of each treatment, and the number of treatments required to treat out a diseased condition. With condenser-tuned equipment, treatment was accomplished with the tuning dials set at the positions required to detect or receive the condition of disease it was desired to eliminate. By using an odd number of vacuum tubes in the amplifier (usually three), the treatment current was administered in reverse phase, thus neutralizing or cancelling out the disease radiation from the patient.
Transistors should never be used in any radionic treatment circuit, as the transistors contain small amounts of arsenic, selenium, or other elements poisonous to the human organism. If incorporated into a treatment circuit, the radiation of the poisonous metal is conducted into the patient and can produce adverse effect.
In the same fertile period of radionic development, the latter half of the 1920s, the Radioclast came into being. It used 10-step dials like the Calbro Magnowave equipment, but lacked the tuning scope of the latter equipment, as most of the Radioclast models had only a very few tuning dials. Vacuum tubes were included, as in the Pathoclast. The Radioclasts were made in Ohio, and obtained a group of followers, mainly in the Eastern U.S, and up into South-East Canada. Within the handicaps imposed by the limited tuning scope and consequently limited range of treatment technique, a considerable amount of worthwhile work was accomplished.
Radioclast instruments, besides their radionic circuits, included two auxiliary treating circuits using conventional electrical treatment modalities -- one was a faradic current.
In the latter part of the 1920, Ruth Drown, D.C., who had been taking treatments from a practitioner in Southern California using Abrams equipment, decided to produce a better instrument. She came up with a small one with a total of nine tuning dials arranged in three rows, three dials per row. The dials had 10 steps each, as before. In contrast to other equipment, hers used no power behind the treatment rates. Her theory was that all vibratory rates were ever-present in the atmosphere and being received [18] by the human organism. Tuning the equipment to a particular rate set up a resonant circuit between the equipment and the patient with regard to that rate, intensifying its effect.
Although she and her assistants did some office treating, most of her treatments were given "broadcast" style -- that is, the patient’s blood specimen was placed on a metal plate incorporated in her instrument, to which the treatment circuit was connected. In practise, while some individuals with particularly sensitive constitutions could benefit from being connected to a treatment circuit with no power behind it, others did not obtain adequate therapeutic effect. The broadcasting of treatments further attenuated the effect. Again, some individuals were susceptible to being treated broadcast fashion, while others were not. Apparently no attempt was made to ascertain into which category each patient fell. The result was that some of those who paid a substantial monthly sum for daily broadcast treatment and who did not benefit naturally complained. This was undoubtedly a factor in the legal persecutions brought against Dr. Drown, though her practise of selling treatment instruments to laymen at high prices was also responsible for drawing legal difficulties.
Dr. Drown undoubtedly had a great deal of ability and a very wide range of knowledge; she therefore attracted a group of enthusiastic followers. She called her work "Radio Therapy" and tried to set it apart from radionics. It would seem that her ability and knowledge transcended the limited scope of her equipment.
RADIONIC PHOTOGRAPHY
A very intriguing development of hers was the use of the equipment to produce photographs of internal organs or tissues. The equipment would be tuned to the organ or tissues in the body it was desired to photograph, and a wire from the equipment tuning circuit led to a clip attached to the unexposed film. She accumulated a remarkable series of photos produced this way. There has never been any satisfactory explanation of how this was done. Dr. Drown was not able to merchandise or commercially exploit this method, as it would not always work for her and it rarely worked for anyone else. Apparently it was akin to some form of psychic photography -- a unique personal talent. If the person of whom an internal organ photo was to be taken was connected directly to the instrument at the time of the "exposure", the resulting picture was a view of the outside of the organ tuned in on the equipment. In contrast, if a blood specimen was used, the resulting photo was an inside view of the patient’s organ, assuming in each case that the process was successful.
(The next instalment of this series will consider the De la Warr equipment, and the equipment produced by successors of the Calbro-Magnowave.)
Continue with "The History and Development of Radionics" (Part VIII)
For a more thorough survey of Drown's system of radionics, we recommend
Trevor James's "The Work of Dr. Ruth Drown".