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Spectro-Chrome Device

Specifications

Spectro-Chrome Device

Category

Health and Medicine

Classification

CHENHALL - Furnishings - Lighting Equipment - Lighting Devices - Projector, Light
CHENHALL - Tools & Equipment for Science & Technology - Medical & Psychological T&E - Medical Instruments - Instrument, Therapeutic

Object Origin
Manufacturer:

Dinshah-Spectro-Chrome Institute

Date Manufactured:

c. 1925

Physical Characteristics

Object Description: Blue painted projecting device on blue base with castors. Star of David on proper right.

Marks: in relief on front: "DINSHAH- ATTUNED COLOR WAVES-SEMAPHORE/ SPECTRO-CHROME INSTITUTE. MALAGA. NEW JERSEY"

Measurements: Object:
    Height: 46 in, Width: 16.25 in, Depth: 19.5 in

Credit

Gift of George Goodrich, 1982.3.2

Display Status

Not On View

Spectro-Chrome Device

About: Spectro-Chrome Device

About: Spectro-Chrome Device

The Spectro-chrome is a visible spectrum color projector created to cure pains or diseases through light therapy. The Spectro-chrome worked by bathing its users in colored lights. Each color corresponded to a different illness. Its creator, Dinshah Ghadiali (1873-1966), who held honorary degrees in medicine, believed that certain chemical elements, such as carbon or oxygen, had corresponding prismatic colors. In healthy people, these colors are balanced, and when they fall out of balance within someone, that person becomes ill. Ghadiali proposed that the Spectro-chrome could be used to bathe sick people in the color of light that was out of balance in their bodies. To be used correctly, the patient had to write to Ghadiali with their medical information and what illness they were suffering from. Ghadiali would then send back a prescription for which color to use and for how long the patient should expose themselves to the light. Ghadiali received much backlash for this device, even though the Spectro-chrome had reached a wide audience. Through Ghadiali’s founding of the Electro-Medical Hall, some 800 health professionals were trained in this light therapy technique. Electro-Medical Hall raked in over $1 million in sales of the Spectro-chrome and its various accessories and guidebooks. In 1924, the Journal for the American Medical Association wrote a piece debunking Ghadiali and the Spectro-chrome due to concerns that this operation was preventing sick people from seeing a doctor in-person. Later, in 1931, Ghadiali was indicted for his false claims surrounding the healing properties of his invention, but it was not until 1948 that the Food and Drug Administration acted to remove Ghadiali from the field of medicine.

Additional information

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