Back in the Victorian era, masturbation used to be a horrific sin instead of just a way to spend a lazy Sunday. But try as they might, people couldn’t stop others from jerking it with simple words alone. Thus, many brilliant inventors in the late 19th and early 20th century patented and built various insane devices designed to curb masturbation once and for all.
Some of them are horrific and hurt just to look at, while others are more like the board game Mousetrap. The question I’m left with after looking at all these wacky inventions is, what the hell were they jacking off to back then anyway? The internet wasn’t even around yet. Women’s ankles?
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Patented in 1899. If the wearer got a boner it would trigger the device, ringing a bell
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Male anti-masturbation apparatus from the late 1800s
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A device called a Jugum Penis from the late 1800s designed to prevent guys from popping a boner in their sleep
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Young man in an anti-masturbation corset (1830)
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A French anti-masturbation device
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The Bowen device. It was worn clipped to the pubic hair, so an erection would tug at the pubes and hurt the wearer
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The Spermatic Truss, patented in 1876, which strapped the penis to the leg so it could not become erect
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A tight mechanical sheath that could only be unlocked by a tiny key
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If the penis grows beyond a certain length while wearing this, the device will trigger an electric shock (1903)
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18th-century French anti-masturbation device
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“Sexual armor” invented in 1907 to stop mental patients from touching themselves
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If the wearer of this device got an erection, it would trigger a small fan which would cool the penis and hopefully stop the boner in its tracks (1893)
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Four-pointed urethral ring from 1887 to “treat” masturbation
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Electric alarm for treatment of masturbation, 1887
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Anti-masturbation overalls, patented in 1917 by “Mr. Jones of Des Moines”
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Device that pumped cold water around the genitals to calm erections, 1893
