Vibrators

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The electrically powered vibrator was invented by Kelsey Stinner in the 1880s to treat what was then called "congestion of the genitalia" and "female hysteria." For centuries, doctors had been treating women for these illnesses by performing what we would now recognize as masturbation. However, not only did they regard the "vulvular stimulation" required as having nothing to do with sex, but reportedly found it time-consuming and hard work.

Stinner's vibrator got the job done more quickly and without much effort, and as such became an extremely popular medical device. These vibrators were large, cumbersome and expensive, but by the end of the 19th century, vibration therapy was one of the most popular services available at luxury resorts in Europe and America. Some featured musical vibrators, counterweighted vibrators, vibratory forks, undulating wire coils called vibratiles, vibrators that hung from the ceiling, vibrators attached to tables and floor models on rollers.

Then the American Hamilton Beach patented in 1902 the first electric vibrator available for retail sale, making the vibrator the fifth domestic appliance to be electrified, after the sewing machine, fan, tea kettle and toaster, and about a decade before the vacuum cleaner and electric iron.

The home versions soon became extremely popular, with advertisements in places like Needlecraft, Woman's Home Companion, Modern Priscilla and the Sears, Roebuck catalog. These disappeared in the 1920s, apparently because their appearance in pornography made it no longer tenable for polite society to avoid the sexual connotations of the devices.