The article explores the history of legislation in the U.S. that regulates vibrators. It explains that vibrators were invented in the late 1800s as a medical device used by doctors only to treat hysteria in female patients. For several decades it was marketed as a medical device and remained...
a 1909 book by female physician May Cushman Rice. However, Rice was not referring to treating hysteria, but rather to the use of high-frequency electrodes to treat vulvitis, inflammation of the vulva. A few pages later, she suggested
The first vibrator was invented in 1869 and wassteam-powered. In those days the vibrator was used to treat "female hysteriaandinfertility." The treatments were always performed in a doctor's office, due to the enormous size of thepaleolithicvibrator. The doctor would perform the arduous task h...