High frequency electricity features heavily in our everyday lives.  It is used in everything from plasma televisions and computer monitors to neon signs and acne zappers, Blue-Ray players and lasers.   But as prevalent as high frequency electricity is today, many machines from the earliest days are prized by collectors of medical and scientific antiques.

 They are based upon a disruptive discharge coil design invented by Nikolas Tesla, (1856-1943) a scientist whose discoveries figure heavily in our use of electricity and radio today. Tesla's coil design of a tightly wound primary magnet coil connected to a vibrating resonator, high voltage capacitor, and a separated secondary coil, transforms ordinary household electricity into a high voltage, high frequency but extremely low amperage electrical energy output. Tesla's original design called for the operation of the coil to resonate at a particular frequency range and produce a magnetic field.

The high frequency of the output of the electrical charge ranged between 400-500KHZ, a set of frequencies that coincidentally human nerves do not feel once it enters the body, passing through it just under the range of radio high frequencies. The devices also emitted a small amount of Ultraviolet light at the point of spark (not from within the glass tube, which only coincidentally glowed purple) and a good quantity of ozone. The combination of high frequency electrical energy, magnetic field, small amount of ultraviolet and quantity of ozone, led to the many claims of medical cures.

Small violet ray sets, while expensive (especially during the Depression Era) became very popular for home use, while huge sets with up to 2 dozen different electrodes were utilized by physicians. These early antiques used the finest materials available: mahogany (now banned from entry into the US), marble, real silk and silk velvet linings, engraved brass plates, gold leaf and joined boxes with leather handles and high carbon steel fittings and were built by hand.

Violet ray coils, though they were invented by the same man, are not quite the same as the large "Tesla Coils" that scientists and hobbyists build and research today. These large Tesla coils have higher frequencies, even higher voltages, and the primary and secondary are reversed. The coils are also wound quite differently. But enough similarities exist that reading information on the Tesla Coils as they are now known, will further understanding of violet ray coils.

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) a contemporary of Nikolas Tesla, advocated the use of the violet ray in almost 900 of his readings. Original violet ray devices were indicated, as they operate under Tesla's original design and resonances and at Cayce's recommendations. Cayce followers, alternative medical practitioners, and holistic therapists still make use of violet ray devices today.