Who Invented The Vibrator?
Sex toys have been around for millennia and what we consider the first real electric vibrator can be attributed to Joseph Mortimer Granville (c. the early 1880s) but did someone beat him to the punch with a more primitive version?
Technically, yes.
Dr. George Taylor invented the first steam-powered vibrator in 1869 — a little more than a decade before Granville patented his electric version.
But why were vibrators originally invented?
The vibrator was actually intended to be a full-body massager capable of relieving sore and aching muscles, while also (supposedly) curing a variety of other health ailments.
The original version designed by Taylor was a steam-powered table, with the engine kept in another room.
The first electrical and hand-held vibrator, however, is much closer to modern massage guns and back massagers meant to relax muscles and relieve pain.
The most common belief about the vibrator’s invention is that it was meant to bring women to climax as part of the treatment for “hysteria.”
Hysteria is a (now) debunked medical condition attributed to women who were stressed, lethargic, or dared to speak an independent thought aloud.
Doctors would manually massage the clitoris to release a sexual blockage they believed existed — a process that sometimes took up to an hour to complete.
While rubbing one out does tend to relax people, the idea of being clinically fingered for around an hour sounds like it would have the opposite effect.
In truth, however, there is no proof that this practice was as widespread as rumor leads us to believe.
Even Granville himself said his invention should not be used to masturbate.
Eventually, electric vibrators were marketed to the public and made freely available for purchase and use at home.
As anyone who has ever been a teen left alone with a neck massager will tell you, it wouldn’t be long before women were finding more enjoyable ways to use Granville’s invention.
A vibrator, a hot cup of tea, and a snack. Sounds like a perfect Sunday afternoon.
