Joseph Mortimer Granville

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Granville's vibrator (left) with battery (right)
Attachments and additional parts of the vibrator
Manual “Percuteur” with spring mechanism

Joseph Mortimer Granville (*  1833 ; †  1900 ) was an English doctor and inventor of the electric vibrator .

Life

Granville was a prolific author of both popular and specialized medical books. He is known today for his invention of the electric vibrator , patented in 1883 , which his inventor did not want to see used for the treatment of "female hysteria " through so-called "percussion" (actually masturbation ):

I have not yet percussed any female patients. [...] I have refrained from percussion treatment of female patients, and I will refrain from doing it in the future, simply because I neither want to be deceived by the unclear forms of hysterical states nor the characteristic manifestations of hypochondria, nor support the deception of others.

Granville's vibrator (known at the time as “Granville's Hammer”, Granville himself called the instrument “Percuteur”) was supplied with several interchangeable attachments. The electricity was supplied by a heavy, but portable battery , consisting of several Bunsen elements connected in series . The device was manufactured by John Weiss & Son, a renowned company for the construction of medical devices and instruments. In addition to the electrically operated vibrator, Granville also used a handy device powered by a spring mechanism .

The story of the invention of the vibrator by Granville is the basis of the film In Good Hands , in which Granville is portrayed by Hugh Dancy . However, the inventor is presented in this film as a much younger man than would have been the age of Granville at the time in question.

Fonts

  • “While the 'boy' waits.” Essays. London 1873
  • The Care and Cure of the Insane: being the reports of the Lancet Commission on Lunatic Asylums, 1875-6-7… With a digest of the principal records extant, and a… review of the work of each asylum. 2 vols., London 1877
  • Common Mind Troubles. London 1878
  • Sleep and sleeplessness. London 1879
  • The Secret of a Clear Head. London 1879
  • Minds and Moods. Gossiping papers on mind-management and morals. London 1879
  • The Secret of a Good Memory. London 1880
  • "Change" as a mentally restorative. London 1880
  • Youth: its care and culture. London 1880
  • How to make the best of life. London 1881
  • Doubts, Difficulties and Doctrines. London 1883
  • Nerve-vibration and excitation as agents in the treatment of functional disorder and organic disease. London 1883
  • Nerves and Nerve-troubles. London 1884
  • Gout in its clinical aspects. An outline of the disease and its treatment for practitioners. London 1885
  • A Note on the Nature and Treatment of Influenza. London 1893

literature

  • Rachel P. Maines: The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology NS 24, Baltimore 1999.

Web links

Wikisource: Joseph Mortimer Granville  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Granville: Nerve-vibration . 1883, p. 58
  2. ^ Granville: Nerve-vibration . 1883, p. 59
  3. ^ Granville: Nerve-vibration . 1883, p. 57
  4. ↑ I have never yet percussed a female patient […] I have avoided, and shall continue to avoid the treatment of women by percussion, simply because I do not wish to be hoodwinked, and help to mislead others, by the vagaries of the hysterical state or the characteristic phenomena of mimetic disease. Granville: Nerve vibration . 1883, p. 57.
personal data
SURNAME Granville, Joseph Mortimer
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English doctor
DATE OF BIRTH 1833
DATE OF DEATH 1900