by David Levy
* According to the Web site www.cakenyc.com.
† German patent number 825,137. Sprenger’s invention consisted of a hollow cylinder made of glass or some other material, to which an air-evacuation device such as a pump could be connected at one end. The purpose of the invention was described as being to overcome sexual impotence in men, which according to Sprenger’s patent application is nearly always based on an inadequate blood supply to the erectile tissue of the penis. To operate the device, the penis was inserted and the air sucked out of the cylinder by the pump, thereby creating a vacuum inside the cylinder. The resulting excess pressure forced blood into the erectile tissue, causing an erection. Springer admitted that on first use the erection may weaken when the container is removed, but he claimed that after repeated use the erection would persist.
* German patent number 835,637. The invention was a sleeve made of a watertight and highly elastic material such as rubber, which had a double wall containing sufficient compressed air to the extent necessary for the sleeve to preserve its own shape. To use the device, it is moderately inflated and then slipped over the penis “before commencement of the sex act. The erection which initially occurs is maintained by pumping an appropriate quantity of air into the inner space (marked 14 on the drawing) by means of the rubber bulb (marked 16)…. On suitable repeated use of the device, this pressure massage at the moment of erection causes a noticeable invigoration of the weakened muscles, so that in due course the massage device will become unnecessary. The desired therapeutic effect is further enhanced by suitable massaging when not performing intercourse.”
Clearly, there would be immense practical problems for a man wearing this device on his penis while entering and moving inside his partner and simultaneously operating the rubber bulb in order to maintain his erection. In fact, these difficulties seem so overbearing that one wonders whether this description of the use of the device was not merely a sop to distract prudish German patent officers and whether the intended purpose of the invention was perhaps as a sex machine, human partner not required. This scandalous suggestion might explain the inventors’ enthusiasm in recommending “suitable massaging when not performing intercourse.”
* Barrio’s patent document does not make any mention of the word “penis” or any other part of the anatomy. Instead it merely devotes two and a half lines, less than one-fiftieth of the entire text of the patent, to reveal that “one of its principal applications is that of an auxiliary means for the achieving of sexual intercourse in the case of people who are old, paralysed etc.”
* Yet another invention from the 1970s, with a very similar purpose, was a “massaging apparatus,” patented in 1976 by Ulrich Glage and his wife, Gisela, of Hamburg, Germany.
The Glages’ invention “relates to a device or apparatus for massaging elongated part of the human body, and especially for applying massage to stimulate and enhance the ability for erection.” It consisted of a vibrating plastic tube lined with fleshlike rubber that would fit around the entire length of a penis and would operate autonomously or with the added help of the human hand. “The invention provides an apparatus for massage comprising an elongated hollow cylindrical sheath having one closed end and so designed that the outside of the sheath is connected to a vibrating device containing means for the simultaneous generation of two different mechanical vibrations.”
* All these and some eight hundred other sex devices are described in Hoag Levins’s 1996 book American Sex Machines: The Hidden History of Sex at the U.S. Patent Office, a survey spanning 150 years of sex inventions.
† See page 256.
‡ See pages 253–56.
§ Available at www.vrinnovations.com.
** Their emphasis, not mine.
* Meaning that they were rather expensive.
† See also Bloch’s description (in the introduction to part two), pages 178–80.
* An article posted on the Internet by Norbert Lenz in 2005 gave an account of “the world’s first sex doll,” a project initiated by Heinrich Himmler during World War II, with the idea of satisfying the sexual urges of the German troops in France while at the same time keeping the troops away from the disease-ridden prostitutes with whom many of them consorted. This article was taken up by other Web sites and subsequently published by the German newspaper Bild and in at least one Scandanavian newspaper. Rather than being of any historic interest, the article was merely an April Fools’ Day hoax, and Norbert Lenz is likely a pseudonym. What I find most interesting about this article’s publication is that many people believed it, demonstrating that in 2005 there was already a significant measure of belief in the viability of sex robots.
† In the 1970s, Sullivan spotted a gap in the soft-porn market and has since built a $1 billion media empire that includes the newspapers Daily Sport and Sunday Sport.
* A comprehensive line of sex dolls and other sex machines is shown, for example, on www.fuckingmachines.com.
* Cyberskin is a natural-feeling material that mimics human flesh. It is formed by combining silicone and latex.
* The branch of medicine dealing with the reproductive and excretory organs.
† See page 215.
* December 11, 2003.
* Dacapo is a Japanese news digest with a focus on current event feature stories.
† April 21, 2004.
‡ The most authoritative explanation for the origin of the term “Dutch wives” is found in Alan Pate’s 2005 book Ningyo¯: The Art of the Japanese Doll. They were originally leather dolls carried aboard Dutch merchant ships, beginning in the seventeenth century; and through their interaction with the Dutch on the trade island of Deshima, established by the Dutch East India company in 1641, the Japanese became familiar with the practice. Pate’s own source for this origin was Mitamura Engyo’s book Takeda Hachidai—Eight Generations of the Takeda Family.
§ See page 93.
* April 16, 2005.
* The machine was named after Sybaris, an ancient city of the Greek Empire that was built on what is now the Gulf of Taranto in southern Italy. The city became wealthy, and its inhabitants were reputed to enjoy lives of unrestrained sensual pleasure, providing the origins of the word “sybaritic.”
† December 1987.
* Airs’s enthusiasm for the proliferation of sex aids is perfectly understandable—she quit a research position at Harvard in 1993 to found Grand Opening, a woman’s sex-toy store, where sales in 2005 were running at around $1 million in each of her two branches.
† Also called the “female self-gratifier.”
‡ This image appears on page 604 of the Sexualwissenschaft (Sexology) volume of Bilder-Lexicon (1930) , a German illustrated encyclopedia that described itself as “a reference work for all areas of medical, legal and sociological studies into sex.”
§ Strangely enough, these included the offense of copulation with a statue, which was “classified as a misdemeanor (a public nuisance coupled with indecent exposure) and also claimed compensation in the form of a fine (if the statue was damaged or ‘sullied’).”16
* Hirschfeld opened the institute in July 1919, the first of its kind in the world, attempting to establish sexuality as a science. The institute had a staff of more than forty, working in many different fields: research, sexual counseling, the treatment of venereal diseases, and public sex education. It also hosted the main offices of both the Scientific Humanitarian Committee—the world’s first homosexual organization—and the World League for Sexual Reform. From the outset the institute was defamed and denounced by the Nazis as “Jewish,” “Social-Democratic,” and “offensive to public morals.” Hirschfeld eventually fled to France, and the institute was vandalized, looted, and shut down in May 1933.
* At www.uspto.gov.
† U.S. patent number 5,725,473.
* In the form of an arc or bow.
* The word “teledildonics,” sometimes referred to as “cyberdildonics,” was the creation of Lee Felsenstein during the 1989 Hackers
’ Conference. It is often wrongly credited to Theodor Nelson.
* Pertaining to the sense of touch.
* This is more than thirty times the number of images processed per second by the human eye.
* At that time I was Scottish Chess Champion and was soon to be awarded the “International Master” title.
* The Times, generally an extremely reliable source, gives the spelling as Nicoll, whereas in the broadside it is Nichols.
† Broadsides, later known as broadsheets, were news posters, each one usually devoted to a single news item.
* The record of public executions in Britain for 1835 makes no mention of Bonnell’s execution, nor does the Times, so presumably he was either reprieved or acquitted on appeal.
* A 1920 act of Parliament intended to control, by the use of draconian powers, who could come to Britain and their behavior once in Britain. The term “harmful act” was employed in relation to this act of Parliament, in order to bring before the courts people who had committed a variety of “offenses.”
† Amazingly, it was only in January 2005 that the state of Virginia repealed a law dating back to the early nineteenth century, banning sexual relations between two unmarried, consenting, heterosexual adults. In fact, that law had not been enforced since 1847, but it took this long for Virginia to accept, formally, that private relationships should be immune from government interference.
* A penance is a sacrament in some Christian churches that includes contrition, confession to a priest, acceptance of punishment, and absolution. In England, until the nineteenth century, the courts of the established church would punish those who were found to have committed certain moral offenses such as defamation, fornication, and adultery. Typical of such punishments is the following order, imposed by the Lichfield consistory court to the ministers of the parish churches of Walsall and Rushall and the chapel of Bloxwich, “to call before them Ann Bickley to do penance for fornication.” Ann was required to visit each of the churches on successive Sundays and “during all the Time of Divine-Service shall stand upon a low Stool placed before the Reading-Desk, in the Face of the Congregation then assembled, being cloathed in a white Sheet, in her Stocking Feet, with her Hair about her ears, and having a white Wand in her hand, and immediately after the End of the second Lesson the said Ann Bickley shall (with an audible Voice) make her humble Confession, as follows: WHEREAS I Ann Bickley not having the Fear of God before mine eyes, but being led by the Instigation of the Devil, and my own carnal Concupiscence, have committed the Crime of Fornication with William Seney To the Dishonour of Almighty God, the Breach of his most sacred Laws, The Scandal and evil Example of others, and the Danger of my own Soul without unfeigned Repentance; I do humbly acknowledge, and am heartily sorry for this my heinous Offense, I ask God Pardon and Forgiveness for the same, in Jesus Christ, and pray him to give me his Grace, not only to enable me to avoid all such like Sin and Wickedness, but also to live Soberly, Righteously and Godly, all the Days of my Life. And to that End I desire all you that are here present to join me in saying the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father, etc.”
* A.D. 350–430.
* Tissot’s book L’Onanisme, ou Dissertation Physique sur les Maladies Produites par la Masturbation (Masturbation: Physical Dissertation on the Illnesses it Produces) ran to hundreds of editions, variations, and plagiarized publications, throughout Europe and America, stretching well into the twentieth century and thereby creating a worldwide fear of masturbation that continues to be problematic for young and old alike.
† The following extracts from Boy Scout manuals are reported by Jean Stengers and Anne van Neck.
* Cybersex is sexual activity or arousal through communication by computer.
† Personal digital assistants.
‡ Another term for humanoid.
* At www.cheyennelive.com.
* See page 146.
† Devices that create movement.
* An android made in the (human) female form. This is not necessarily the same as a fembot, which is usually taken to mean a robot having artificial female genitalia or suitable substitutes in the form of haptic interfaces.
* See page 267.
* See page 179.
