The early Days of Electrotherapy: Medicine, Engineering, and the Allure of electricity

This article examines how electrotherapy circulated between professional medicine and domestic practice in the Czech lands between approximately 1890 and 1940, and how this circulation shaped its scientific legitimacy. Rather than treating electrotherapy simply as a therapeutic technique whose authority depended solely on clinical effectiveness, the study approaches it as a technological and social practice situated at the intersection of medicine, electrical engineering, and commercial culture. The analysis draws on medical journals, clinical reports, technical manuals, regulatory documents of the Czechoslovak Electrotechnical Union ( Elektrotechnický svaz československý , ESČ), commercial catalogues, advertising materials, and contemporary press sources. These diverse materials allow reconstruction of the institutional, technical, and commercial environments in which electrotherapy was debated, regulated, and promoted. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of high-frequency electrotherapy and diathermy, the integration of electrical treatment into spa medicine, and the role of ESČ regulations in establishing technical standards for electrotherapeutic equipment. At the same time, electrotherapy expanded beyond hospitals and medical institutions into the consumer market, where portable high-frequency devices were widely marketed for domestic use. The article argues that electrotherapy’s scientific legitimacy did not emerge solely from clinical validation but from ongoing negotiations among physicians, electrical engineers, regulatory institutions, manufacturers, advertisers, and consumers within a rapidly electrifying society.