"Vibration is life!": electromechanical vibrators and women consumers, 1899-1930

Summary form only given, as follows. At the turn of this century, the electromechanical vibrator was less than two decades old, an invention by physicians from older technologies of water and steam power, used for massage treatment of hysteria and neurasthenia by inducing the "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm) in women in physicians' ofices and at health spas. By the late 1920s, when vibrators began appearing in stag films, the technology had become decentralized to consumers through advertising campaigns in needlework, household and agricultural magazines, and even door-to-door sales. This consumer takeover of a technology formerly controlled by a skilled professional elite paralleled similar developments in still photography and later in videotape production.