Each month, we visit Dr. Blaufox’s Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts to take a look back at the medical equipment that cleared the way for what patients encounter in doctors’ offices and operating rooms of today. Some equipment may be recognizable, while other featured inventions have since become obsolete or have had their usefulness discredited.

The picture and description appear courtesy of Dr. M. Donald Blaufox, M.D., Ph.D., from his website: www.mohma.org.

Category: Radionuclides
Estimated Date: 1924
Name: Sparklets
Manufacturer: Sparklets Limited
Description: Syphon jar, which resembles a large seltzer bottle, but is wrapped in a metal mesh and has a red mark at the top just below the neck. A metal cylinder is contained in a housing which is fitted to the two-winged handle. The handle can be depressed to emit the water which has been enriched with the radioactive gas from the cylinder. There is a glass tube from the spout to the bottom of the bottle. The descriptive literature included with the jar states that the radium-infused water relieves the pain of gout, lowers blood pressure and lowers anxiety, along with a host of other outrageous claims.