Did you know that vibrators were actually made FOR masturbation, not massaging sore muscles?
At one time in history, it was expected that a "good' woman did not like sex.Usually,she would go to the marriage bed completely unaware of what was about to happen.Sometimes her mother or an aunt might pull her aside before she joined her husband in the bedroom, and,giving her the only information she'd ever been privy to about sex, would explain to her that her husband was going to "do something" to her that would probably be painful the first few times, and terribly unpleasant thereafter,and that she must "Submit".So the terrified bride is made to suffer the clumsy attempts of a husband who thinks that only whores enjoy sex,and he hurries through the sex act without foreplay in order to finish quickly and spare his wife the indignity.The bride is none the wiser..she has no idea sex can be enjoyable for her.....she probably never even masturbated, as it was frowned upon, and if you were caught as a child or teenager practicing "Onanism", as it was called,you would most likely have your hands bound or genital restraints made of steel which discouraged arousal were placed on you.Some boys had their penises tied,or put in a device which prevented them from touching themselves, much like a cage.Females had chastity belts.
As time went on, the women would become sexually frustrated,but had no idea what was wrong.Many went crazy.They called this feminine hysteria, and believed it was caused by the uterus wandering around the inside of the woman's body.
In time, doctors discovered that inducing "paroxysms"in the women would cure them.What this meant was the women went to the doctor and he manually masturbated them to orgasm.Some women were told to come back once a week, and some more,depending on the severity of the "hysteria".
In time the demand for these doctors became so great, they could not keep up with all of the patients...
The first vibrator was invented in 1869 to offset physician fatigue.It was steam powered.By 1899, the vibrator had become small enough to be sold in catalogs for home use...though they couldn't come right out and say what it was for, they did advertise that it made you more youthful,got rid of headaches,nerve pain and wrinkles.Sales went up as electricity became more prevalent in household.
Here's a link to a brief history of sex toys, where I got my info for the actual date of invention for the vibrator,and references for the last paragraph.
http://www.mypleasure.com/features/timeline/index.asp