24. The Nineteenth Century Solution to the Perceived Epidemic of Female Hysteria? Coal-Fueled Steam-Powered Vibrators
In the late nineteenth century, the medical community believed that there was an epidemic of female hysteria. Some leading physicians estimate that 75% of America’s women suffered from the malady. However, the cure of inducing “female paroxysm”, or orgasm, in patients via pelvic massage was a time-consuming task. It was difficult to teach and learn, doctors complained that it often took an hour or more, and many suffered wrist and fingers fatigue – carpal tunnel syndrome, as we would call it today.
The solution to weary doctors’ cramping fingers and aching wrists was mechanical vibrators, to relieve physicians of the manual work required to induce female orgasm. Mechanical relief first arrived in 1869 with the invention of the first steam-powered vibrator, fueled by shoveling coal into its furnace. The drawback was that such vibrators were bulky and cumbersome contraptions, some as big as a dining room table.