[2][3] Rife is known for his microscopes, which he claimed could observe live microorganisms with a magnification considered impossible for his time, and for an "oscillating beam ray" invention, which he thought could treat various ailments by "devitalizing disease organisms" using radio waves.

[5] A report published by the Smithsonian Institution described one of these microscopes as equipped for "transmitted and monochromatic beam dark-field, polarized, and slit-ultra illumination, including also a special device for crystallography".

According to the San Diego Evening Tribune in 1938, Rife stopped short of claiming that he could cure cancer, but did argue that he could "devitalize disease organisms" in living tissue, "with certain exceptions".

[3] An obituary in the Daily Californian described his death at the age of 83 on August 5, 1971, stating that he died penniless and embittered by the failure of his devices to garner scientific acceptance.

[8] Rife blamed the scientific rejection of his claims on a conspiracy involving the American Medical Association (AMA), the Department of Public Health, and other elements of "organized medicine", which had "brainwashed and intimidated" his colleagues.

[10][11][12] An analysis by Electronics Australia found that one typical 'Rife device' cost AU$105 for a rudimentary circuit that simply produced a tiny pulsed electrical current (at a single fixed frequency of about 40kHz).

It consisted of a nine-volt battery, wiring, a switch, a standard 555 timer chip and two short lengths of copper tubing meant to act as handheld electrodes, delivering a current which the author estimated at 1 milliamp at most.

[16] A Washington State couple Donald and Sharon Brandt, who operated a clandestine health-care clinic from their home in Mount Vernon[17] based on Rife's inventions were convicted for a short imprisonment period.

"[21] A 2000 article in The Sydney Morning Herald warned: "Cancer sufferers have died after putting their faith in a device with electrical parts worth just $15" (equivalent to $27 in 2023), further reporting that Rife machines are "unanimously condemned as worthless by mainstream scientists and banned in at least two American States.