Elisha Perkins was a physician in Plainfield, Connecticut, around the time of the American Revolution. Having patients who suffered so much pain from maladies there was no treatment for, he experimented with the properties of metals, thinking they could influence nerves and muscles from outside the body. In 1796, he patented metallic tractors, which were pretty much just a couple of nails.
Perkins’ metallic tractors consisted of two instruments 3-inches in length. The tractors were described as “half rounded on one side, while the other was flat and usually had the name ‘Perkins Patent Tractors’ stamped upon it; they were rounded at one end and drawn out into a sharp point at the other, and resembled a horseshoe nail in appearance.”[4] Although Perkins claimed the tractors were created from unusual metal alloys, one tractor was steel and the other brass. They could be applied to a patient’s head, face, feet, breast, side, stomach, and back to “draw off the noxious electrical fluid that lay at the root of suffering.”[5] Perkins accomplished this by drawing the points over the affected parts of a person in a downward direction for about twenty minutes.
What was stunning was the success he had with the tractors. Patients experienced relief from pain, and the instruments sold like hotcakes for $25 a set- an enormous sum at the time. An institution was even founded in Perkins' name. But it didn't last forever. Read the tale of the metallic tractors at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Wellcome Images)