The vibrator was a Victorian gift to women, new film Hysteria reveals
The film, in which the Oscar-nominated Maggie Gyllenhaal will appear alongside a British cast including Jonathan Pryce, Sheridan Smith, Ashley Jensen, Rupert Everett and Gemma Jones, is to tell the story of the accidental discovery of motorised sex aids in Victorian England. The film will support the contentious claim that, around 1880, a Dr Joseph Mortimer Granville, played by Hugh Dancy, was the first to create an electromechanical vibrator and that his invention was followed in 1902 by the patenting of a device later retailed by the American company, Hamilton Beach.
