A century ago, it was conventional and accepted medical wisdom that good health required long exposure of the skin to natural sunlight as a means of producing vitamin D in the human body. This lead to the widespread use of heliotherapy–that is, sunbathing.
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To facilitate efficient sunbathing, French physician Dr. Jean Saidman constructed this solarium–a sunbathing facility–in the French Alps in 1930. As the sun moves across the sky, the elevated platform rotates to maximize exposure.
Saidman built a total of three solariums (solaria?): two in France and one in British India. The French ones closed in 1937 and 1943.
The last of these solariums still exists, although it has not been used since 1996. The 2013 video above shows what’s left of it.
You can read more about these rotating solariums at Amusing Planet.
-via Messy Nessy Chic
Source: neatorama