Fundamentals of Electricity and Light for Those Engaged in Beauty Culture Practice
Red cloth 8vo, 192pp. Very Good+ with rubbing and bumping to extremities, a few instances of underlining. Well-illustrated with diagrams and a great photograph of a woman in UV safety goggles. 5 copies in OCLC.
While many beauty texts up to the period focused on performing treatments and practical elements, this textbook reflects the increasing technicality of the beauty industry. Illinois began requiring board certification for cosmetology in 1928, mandating coursework at accredited institutions like McGovern School of Beauty. Eberhart's Brief Physiotherapy Manual had previously been the recommended text. Highly credentialed, his CV included Head of The Department of Physiologic Therapeutics, Medical Department of Loyola University; Head of Electrotherapeutics, Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery and Attending Physician and Surgeon at several Chicago hospitals. He published Fundamentals of Electricity and Light recognizing "the need of an authoritative work on this subject, couched in terms suitable for students of Beauty-Culture and kindred arts."
Eberhart writes in the introduction: "The books that have been in general use have been written by expert cosmetologists but not by those specializing in Electricity and Light, and therefore containing many errors as a result of trying to adapt or paraphrase the writings of others because of the lack of first-hand technical knowledge of electro-physics."