# Historical Use of Vibrators
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 9, 2000, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418 "2000-11-09T05:16:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Meldry2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meldry2000)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/1 "2000-11-09T05:16:05Z")
\<\< Question: Were vibrators and dildos really prescribed by doctors to treat women diagnosed with hysteria? \>\>
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### Author:  [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/2 "2000-11-09T06:50:23Z")
Actually, yes. In times past an orgasm was considered a good cure for hysteria.
[http://www.goodvibes.com/museum.html?BASKETID=00\_3a0a4b0b22e60](http://www.goodvibes.com/museum.html?BASKETID=00_3a0a4b0b22e60)
is a link to the online vibrator museum. It discusses these things in detail.
Incidentally, the first vibrator was steamed powered.
So who’s feeling hysterical?
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### Author:  [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/3 "2000-11-09T07:36:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andygirl \*
> **…Incidentally, the first vibrator was steamed powered…**
What a nice visual image…
_i think i can
i think i can
i think i can…_
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### Author:  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/4 "2000-11-09T07:55:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by andygirl \*
> **Incidentally, the first vibrator was steamed powered.**
???
The possibility for humorous commentary has rendered me speechless. Well, almost.
I suppose you had to be careful about the sparks and hot steam? (A feeble effort, but what the heck, it’s late).
Thanks, Andygirl, I remember reading about that at one time but had forgotten. A steam-powered dildo seems as strange (stranger, actually) as a gas-powered washing machine (my mom used one – the GP washing machine – as a little girl).
~~Baloo
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### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/5 "2000-11-09T17:51:24Z")
\>\> Incidentally, the first vibrator was steamed powered.
You beat me to post that joke but I seriously hope you do not mean it seriously. It is not even an UL.
Can you imagine? How long does it take to “turn it on”? You start stoking the fire and by the time the machine is in the mood you’ve already finished the job by hand. Some labor saving devices are not worth the hassle.
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### Author:  [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/6 "2000-11-09T20:01:13Z")
Is there a picture of such an “infernal machine” anywhere on the web? Now I’m curious.
~~Baloo
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### Author:  [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2000, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/7 "2000-11-09T21:28:25Z")
All jokes aside and strictly a wild guess, but I would imagine a steam powered dildo wouldn’t have had its own steam engine but would have been hooked up with a hose to the steam heating pipes in one’s house or apartment, employing the pressure in the lines much like compressed-air tools today are plugged into a common air compressor.
What would someone do if they didn’t have steam heat? Well, they were used to having to stoke their own fires by hand anyhow. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/8 "2000-11-10T00:02:48Z")
You should all read the defnitive history of the vibrator, “The Technology of Orgasm” by Rachel Maines, and in case you are wondering, it has about 40 pages of footnotes AND illustrations from period magazines and the like. T
My favorite part is from the introduction, she describes some research she did at a museum which had a substantial collection, Anyway, she and a curator were going through them, and found an early electrically motorized model, and just for larks, plugged it in… still operational! Speaking about it later to colleagues, one said “we found one that still works!” to which the other dryly replied “we don’t know if it works… but it runs.”
And you have to grasp that the whole purpose of the vibrator was because treating hysteria patients er… “manually” was far too time-consuming and difficult.
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### Author:  [@Walrus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walrus)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2000, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-use-of-vibrators/40418/9 "2000-11-10T13:55:52Z")
Why is it that, after reading this batch of comments, “The Engineer’s Song” keeps running through my mind?
Tom
(wanders of singing softly…
“An engineer told me, before he died aha…”)