My Chiroparactor is a Time Lord...

[greatwazoo42]

I started seeing a chiropractor recently. I got tired of having to cry out "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" all the time. :lol After one of my recent treatments I saw one of the good doctor's implements sitting on the table between the power drill and the 4 pound hand sledge. I asked him about it and he told me it's called and Activator and they've been using them since the late 1960's. The next visit I brought in one of my little toys to show him and he let me take a couple of shots of said toy between two modern activators. So...notice the resemblance? :lol

 

[Quinn Merrick]

Well I'll be damned.... It appears that the "head" even extends as well. I'd like to see what an "Activator" from the UK during the 70's looked like. Maybe this was more of a found item than we think.

 

[deck5]

I started seeing a chiropractor recently. I got tired of having to cry out "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!" all the time. :lol After one of my recent treatments I saw one of the good doctor's implements sitting on the table between the power drill and the 4 pound hand sledge. I asked him about it and he told me it's called and Activator and they've been using them since the late 1960's. The next visit I brought in one of my little toys to show him and he let me take a couple of shots of said toy between two modern activators. So...notice the resemblance? :lol

That jives with my observations. The body of the classic Sonic Screwdriver looks to be a chiropractic adjusting tool without finger and heel grip pieces, and without a catch pin -- the pin that ran in the angled slot near the end of the handle. Because the catch pin is missing/broken, the inner sleeve extends perhaps an inch further than it would normally in an unmodified tool.

The angled cut on the end of the handle would have fit into the missing heel grip.

The rounded black tip on the inner rod (into which the halo/emitter is inserted on the Sonic Screwdriver) may well have been the original rubber tip from the tool.

 

[PtByNmbrs]

My thoughts also, I posted this same observationyears ago.

It’s also discussed in this thread

http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=3960&highlight=sonic+screwdriver+chiropractic

 

[greatwazoo42]

Ah that thread. I remember it well. Shame it ended so badly with BoatBuilder1 up and vanishing on us just as we were so close to a screen accuarate version.

I've been doing some research into older versions of the Activator but I can't find anything on the web. I wonder if there's a museum of Chiropractic History somewhere in the world that may have a collection of them.

 

[greatwazoo42]

I've still had squatola for luck finding images of the 1960's versions of the activator but, looking at the screen cap from Thunderbirds where the original body of the prop shows up I could swear that's exactly what it is. Has anyone else found anything?

 

[micdavis]

Wow. That is amazingly similar.

Keep up the research.