# Victorian Vibrators

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [December 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292 "2007-12-08T16:50:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292/1 "2007-12-08T16:50:04Z")

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[Did Victorian era doctors use vibrators to treat hysteric female patients with orgasm therapy?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/071207.html)

In the course of some, er, serious research, I discovered that a picture is worth a thousand words.

[http://www.vibratormuseum.com/](http://www.vibratormuseum.com/)

[http://www.goodvibes.com/Content--Antique-Vibrator-Museum--id-367](http://www.goodvibes.com/Content--Antique-Vibrator-Museum--id-367)

The second link is to a (very pleasant) sex shop, so no hot linking 🙂

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### Author: ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292/2 "2007-12-09T20:11:57Z")

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Here’s [another](http://www.adult-sextoys-guide.com/vibratorhistory.html) illustrated timeline/history of the vibrator. It’s terrifying that “The Manipulator”- the first patented one in American- ran on steam. (Incidentally, I can find descriptions of it in the government patent office website but the original patent drawings aren’t online. 😉 )

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### Author: ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292/3 "2007-12-09T21:22:42Z")

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[QUOTE=Sampiro]  
It’s terrifying that “The Manipulator”- the first patented one in American- ran on steam.  
[/QUOTE]  
What, you’ve never heard of explosive orgasms?

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### Author: ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/victorian-vibrators/429292/4 "2007-12-10T02:00:20Z")

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Slate magazine also put together a slideshow on [the history of the vibrator](http://www.slate.com/id/2121835/).

> [@Cecil Adams](#):
>
> By the mid-1800s symptoms of hysteria included inability to reach orgasm through vaginal intercourse and sexual fantasies accompanied by vaginal lubrication and an urge to masturbate. In short, normal female sexuality had been classified as pathological, and doctors stood ready to battle the epidemic.

Ok, but it was my uniformed impression that hysteria was a catch-all diagnosis, encompassing depression, etc. Is this the case?