Name/Title
PulsoconnEntry/Object ID
2020.09.24.07Description
The Pulsocon was originally named the “Pulsator” by the French entrepreneur Gerald Macaura who developed and marketed the device in 1908 at Manchester, England. The egg beater device caused a vibration when manually cranked and applied to the body surface. Although Macaura had no medical experience, he claimed the vibrations (up to 5000 per minute) would increase blood circulation curing numerous maladies. The Pulsator was later (1914) marketed in the United States as the “Cirkulon” and continued to be sold up until the 1950s as a muscle stimulator.
Prescribed to women as cure-alls for ailments like poor circulation, rheumatism and the always-vague “hysteria
On May 15, 1914, in Paris, The New York Times reported, “Gerald Macaura, an American citizen, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and to pay a fine of $600 on a charge of fraud in connection with the sale of a vibratory massage instrument.”
Sadly, Dr. Macaura was not a doctor at all. And the cure-all claims he had attached to his Pulsocon could not rightly be proved. But his device, 120 years later, still vibrates like a champ.
