Originally called Dr. Macaura's Pulsocon and later renamed Dr. Macaura's Blood Circulator, this early hand crank driven vibrator was produced some time around the late 1800s, and remained in production well into the 1920s. 

The device was held in one hand, pushed against the desired body part, and hand-cranked to caused the invigorating vibration required. Apparently the action that Dr. Macaura's invention created was a plunging motion, on the desired body part.

The plunging motion could be eventuated with the addition of applicators, that would screw into the end of the device for more focused sensations. Apparently turning the handle produced a surprisingly intense vibration over the affected area. It came with a full complement of paperwork (16 and 58 page booklets and a pamphlet). What more could a lady need from a blood circulation stimulating device. One assumes, despite the photo on the right, that a lady could self stimulate most required areas of her body herself, in the privacy of her own boudoir. 

The syrup was widely sold both in the UK and the United States. It wasn't until 1911, when the American Medical Association published a book, naming and shaming quack remedies and snake-oils. In a section called "Baby Killers", Mrs. Winslow and her syrup were rightly named and shamed. However, the syrup remained on sale in the UK until 1930. Which means that the parents were still spoon feeding this laudanum for kids, to their children, long after the dangers of opium and alcohol being mixed, were considered dangerous for adults.

This curiously bizarre invention is from way back in 1925. It was introduced to the world by Hugo Gernsback a member of “The American Physical Society,” and one of the pioneers of science fiction. It was featured in that July issue of Science and Invention magazine, and involved something akin to a large bulbous diving helmet with an oxygen tank. It was supposed to encourage users to be able to focus and concentrate by rendering the wearer deaf, piping them full of oxygen, and limiting their vision to a tiny portholes.

Hugo Gernsback was an inventor, writer, editor, and magazine publisher, best known for publications including the first ever science fiction magazine. He began the modern genre of science fiction in 1926 by founding the first magazine dedicated to it, Amazing Stories. 

Hugo Gernsback's place in science fiction is recognised each and every year with the Hugo Awards (the Hugos), named after him, that recognise the best in science fiction and fantasy writing. First awarded in 1953, they were called  Science Fiction Achievement Awards until 1992. Renamed the Hugo Awards, in recognition of the great work he did to promote the genre.

A quack doctor medical device that appeared in the late 1800s, these painful looking instruments made all kinds of claims for their curative properties. Apparently sticking a large rubber dildo up your rear-end could cure anything from constipation, piles, and prostate prostate trouble, to nervousness, improve acne and aid restful sleep. Seriously! You'd think the last thing you'd have is a restful sleep after someone had shoved one of those bad boys up your bum. 

These things were marketed right into the late 1930s. Then in 1938, a new Federal Law in the United States covered such quack devices, and they became outlawed. 

Vintage ads for rectal dilators. At least the "Recto Rotor" a particularly painful looking instrument of torture, has lube vents.