|
I have a regular hitachi magic wand from the 80s because they kinda haven't changed the design at all since they made it, and unironically it works really well, even for what it's actually designed for like on my back and neck n shit.
While on a call with some friends one night though I was sifting through eBay trying to find just the most absurd vibrator possible. Like something that has such an incredibly niche usage that you shouldn't even think about using it as a sex toy
Here's some notable ones that I didn't buy:
I ended up going with simply the oldest one that I could find, the Niagara model 1, from roughly 1949:
It has no ground plug, the main casing appears to be sealed shut through some metal joining process, and it has full variable speed control via an in-line variable transformer (or it might just be a really bulky potentiometer, it's kinda hard to tell but the control box gets hot as shit.)
There's a couple different models, mainly having different style control boxes and knobs, and most missing the handle on the main unit.
Main question is how to use it. It's got a rather bulky rounded end, and a smaller protrusion that amplifies the vibration a bit since it's so far out. 40-60% on the variac is kinda the sweet spot, but slowly bringing it down to minimum speed for a really soft rumble also has it's uses.
OH and it has a brushed motor !!! When you run it on max speed you can literally smell the motor because of that. Don't get your hair caight in the vent holes !
I think the most interesting discovery I made about this though, is that they still make it 75 years later:
It's kinda marketed like a pseudo-science product, even touting that it was "The official therapy equipment of the 1980 and 1984 Olympics!" There's videos of people using it on horses. The new ones cost like a grand. I wonder if I could get insurance to cover it.
I found this one website that has a bunch of info on old vibrators, and a lot of patent art too, if reading further was of any interest
|