Unfortunately the movie-based on Rachel Maines 1998 book, “The Technology of Orgasm”-is somewhat inventive with the facts (7). If Granville sounds familiar, you probably know him as the sexy doctor from the 2011 film “Hysteria”. George Taylor’s steam-powered “Manipulator” table massager were already in use in France and the US. English physician Joseph Mortimer Granville invented an electric vibrator in 1883, although similar machines like Dr. In the 1800s, industrialization transformed many aspects of life, including medicine. Jumping ahead a thousand years (and some) brings us to a popular idea in the history of vibrators: that they were invented by western doctors in the 19th century, and used to masturbate hysterical women. 1800s: “Manipulators,” “circulators” and the myth of medical masturbation
