Manual Hand Tools
The use of tools applied to the human body to supplement massage is an ancient practice. The ancient stave or strigil shaped like a was used as early as 3000 BC by the people of Mesopotamia and Egypt. The oldest massage tool yet to be discovered is a jade ritual blade from the Longshan culture of China, dating back to the Shang dynasty (circa 2000-1500 B.C.). The stone is believed to have been used either hot or cold for placing on tired and sore muscles. Later, (175 BC) the strigil was used extensively by the Greeks and Romans to scrape oils from the body and produce friction as part of the process of massage, cold or hot baths, exercise or competitive games.

Along with the strigil, the ancient Greeks and Romans used pieces of cloth made of wool or cotton to apply friction to the body. Sometimes the treatments were harsh and drew blood from the recipient due to the course cloth and extensive friction. Ferules, made of ebony, wood or bone, were straight tools used for tapping—or what today we call tapotement.

Utilized in association with hot or steam baths, flagellation is a form of tapotement delivered by beating the body with twigs or leaved branches, usually of birch or green nettles. Flagellation is thought to be helpful in cases of atrophy and emaciation.

The use of heated or chilled stones is not unique to any particular part of the world, but the Chinese seem to have used this method extensively. Jade, marble, basalt and many kinds of exotic stones that are dense and maleable were the most commonly used.

In the World of Massage Museum there is a 1,000-year-old jade massage knuckle that was used to rub the body. It may have been heated or cooled.

About the same time the Chinese came up with tools carved from wood—or, more often, animal bones—used to apply pressure to points or replace the fingers for digging into trouble spots, the English were using tools as well. The Chinese created wooden needles or bats, while the English carved bone tools used for treating gout.

A Chinese wooden needle was used instead of the fingers to dig into the body's pressure points.

There is also a Chinese bat that was a portable tool for massage, replacing the fist or hand and used to pat on a limb or the body.

Tools used by ancient peoples were usually made of natural products indigenous to their particular environment. For example, the guava tree that grows in the Pacific islands lent itself to the shape of a device called a Laau lomi-lomi stick, a thin gently curving limb, as well as rounded lava rocks called lomi-balls. Polynesians also utilized walking sticks to support and balance themselves so they could do a walking massage on their subjects.

Wooden Hawaiian Laau lomi-lomi sticks are used for self-massage of the back, and applied to specific pressure points. Originally the balls were lava rock used to clean or scrape the skin after a lomi-lomi session.

In the 1780s, an English veteran of the American Revolutionary War named Admiral Henry of Rolvenden made manual massage tools for treating his own muscular aches and pains. His goal was to increase circulation by keeping soft tissues "loose by instruments worked among them."

Admiral Henry's instruments were of different materials, and varying shapes and sizes. For example, he placed a piece of cork on the head of a hammer and covered it with leather, as a percussion device. He also made a wood instrument for beating the heels and soles of the feet. He fashioned bone instruments from cattle ribs "with knobs to work among the tendons" that were shaped for rubbing various parts of the body. Small bone instruments were fashioned for rubbing the inside of the mouth (Johnson, 1866, p. 90-100).

In the early 1800s, rubbing, friction and percussion were the mainstays of manual treatment. But by the end of the 19th century, massage had developed into a more sophisticated form of manual therapy, including sliding techniques (i.e., effleurage) that could be mimicked with rollers. In addition, the industrial revolution had set the stage for mass production of manual massage tools that could be made available to the masses in large urban centers, and via catalog to more rural areas.

Mass-Produced Massage Tools
For more than 100 years, handheld "massagers" have been mass-produced, and available to the general public and professionals alike. One manufacturer, the Health Culture Company of New York, put out a line of manual massage tools in the 1890s, well before the wide availability of electricity. The idea was to increase the use of massage for treating ailments.

"But where there is one invalid who may command the services of a skillful masseur in the home, or the sanitarium, there are a thousand sufferers in distant farm houses, in smaller towns and villages, in the homes in city or country where wealth does not abound, who are deprived of this powerful means of cure if it can only be given at the hands of a professional masseur" (Foster, 1898, p. 5).

The Health Culture line of massage tools was designed for use in the home by individuals, and in institutions and hospitals by trained assistants. Two of the most popular mass-produced manual tools were massage rollers and percussion instruments.

The New Roller Treatment
Massage rollers were used to provide a rolling compression along muscles, simulating the basic massage technique of effleurage. Dr. William Forest's massage rollers, sold by the Health Culture Company (c. 1898), came in six sizes to support various purposes and different sites on the body. They were used for the "new roller treatment" for ailments like indigestion, constipation, rheumatism, neuralgia and insomnia. The abdominal roller No. 5 was used for the "reduction of flesh." For a more beautiful Gibson girl neck, No. 3 was the roller of choice. (See Figures 1, Page 154, and 2, above.)

In late 19th century Germany, a roller called the "Japanese apparatus" was popular. It consisted of a ball housed in a casing that fit into the hand, and allowed the ball to roll freely as it moved along the skin. (See Figure 3.)

Variations of the massage roller are endless. Simple wooden rollers for the feet and back continue to be popular for self-care. A corrective foot exercise chart introduced by Dr. William Scholl in 1940 shows the use of his "plantar massage and foot strengthener" to relieve aches, pains and cramps due to weak and broken down feet.

Percussion Massage Tools
Many varieties of percussion instruments, also known as muscle beaters, have been used through the ages. Some 19th century examples include a wooden percussor for the soles of the feet, and a fan-like percussion instrument that could reach the back.

Well-known proponent of massage Douglas Graham, M.D. (1848-1928) is said to have introduced rubber ball beaters to the medical circles of his day.

"Very well suited for percussion are india-rubber balls secured to steel, whalebone or other elastic handles. With these one gets the spring of the handles together with the rebound of the balls, and thus rapidity of motion with easily varying intensity may be gained if only the operator knows how to let his wrists play freely ... the effect is usually perceived in a peculiar and agreeable thrill" (Graham's Treatise on Massage, as quoted in Forest, 1898).

India-rubber ball beaters (c. 1900)

For a modern version of this tool see our Bongers

Modern Massage Tools
It seems that each year brings modern variations of these old massage tools. While the basic intent hasn't changed much in 200 years (with the noted exception of tools to work trigger points), modern materials and modified shapes add newness to an old concept. Plastic, in particular, has been found useful in making massage tools because it can easily be molded into odd shapes, is flexible and is easily mass-produced. One of the earliest uses of plastic, related to massage, was on a rolling pin device made of a corrugated rubber surface with green Bakelite handles (c. 1920). Note: Bakelite is an early form of plastic.

Plastic massage tools may take on different shapes, but all provide a smooth surface to easily slide along the skin and rub the muscles underneath. These tools include round-knobbed plastic devices such as the JackNobber, and even massagers shaped like animals See our Octi pet for an example. These plastic massagers can be just about any shape, as long as the massage surface is smooth enough and the tool is easy to hold.

Wood massage tools seem to retain their popularity among massage practitioners and hot rocks and stone massagers are recent natural materials made popular by massage therapists in spa settings.

History of Vibrational Massage tools
Earliest recorded forms of ancient therapy used to deliver vibration were from the Greek and Roman era. A patient was placed on a simple wooden plank hung from ropes attached to a tree or a cross-bar and vigorously pushed to and fro. The rhythmic jostling of riding atop a horse or mule was a more severe vibration treatment. But the ultimate vibratory therapy was delivered to the patient while he or she sat on a small two-wheeled wagon, made with uneven wheels, pulled over rough stone roadways.

A slightly more advanced method of vibrational massage was also developed by the Greeks. It was mentioned by Blumenthal, used by the Greeks, which consisted of wrapping one end of a saw in cotton fabric and applying it to the part to be treated while on the uncovered part of the saw a piece of wood was sawed; thus mechanical vibration was transmitted to the part requiring treatment. Rather than the entire body, as most other methods of the time.

Swings, horses and wagon-riding were used from ancient times until the early 19th century, when mechanical devices replaced the more ancient modes of treatment. Their intended purpose was to ease morbidity, help circulation and digestion, and treat some nervous disorders. Without the administering physician’s knowledge, however, the lymphatic system was also stimulated to help remove waste products from tissues and empower the immune functions of the body. Asclepiades referred to these treatments as "gestation."

Vibration was the first massage stroke imitated by mechanical devices. Machines could deliver slow and consistent movements better than a human practitioner, and they did not get tired. It is interesting to note that the first devices labeled "massage vibrator" were not vibrators at all but were beaded body rollers.

The first real vibrators were hand-cranked devices used by physicians to deliver percussion in one direction only - something like a repeating hammer action. Developed in Germany circa 1855, the Macurator Blood Circulator was the most simple of these first manufactured massagers. The Macurator delivered a variable frequency pounding on the body that resembled vibration if cranked fast enough.

The Veedee was an advanced hand-cranked massage vibrator. This device was more sophisticated than the Macurator, even though it utilized the same drill-like principles to deliver its vibration to the body. A small adjustable flywheel that could be calibrated to provide more or less vibration was attached to the end of the Veedee to accentuate the vibration and provide more horizontal movement to the body, thus creating the first true vibrator.

In 1882 Hartvig Nissen presented a new invention called "the Vibrator" in his book, A Manual of Instruction For Giving Swedish Movement and Massage Treatment. Invented by J. W. Osborne, Nissen claimed it was made especially for his institute and that, by 1889, he'd been using it with success for three years.

After the early percussive devices came hand-cranked machines that produced up-and-down stroking, and circular movements used in the treatment of neuralgia, atrophy, emaciation and constipation.

Actual vibration delivered in more than one direction wasn’t developed until the middle of the 19th century.

George Taylor, M.D., is credited with being the first American to create a steam and foot/hand crank device, in 1880. Taylor's "Manipulator" simply turned a wheel, which pushed a rod that created a movement on a handle or padded surface. The patient would either hold on to the handle and receive the vibration or oscillations, or sit or stand against the padded surface to receive the movement from the machine.

Steam-powered massage devices were created about 1875 and were often large mechanical monsters that accommodated more than one person at a time.

John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. (the doctor who created Kellogg's Cornflakes) developed a vibrating machine that provided foot, hand and full-body vibration treatments for up to five persons simultaneously. In 1895 John Harvey Kellogg M.D. wrote a paper called "The Art of Massage." Most of these devices delivered either percussion or vibration and were used for specific medical conditions.

Early in his career Kellogg became interested in mechanical exercisers. He invented a simple vibrating chair by attaching an ordinary wooden armchair to a small platform that oscillated twenty times a second. He believed that the resulting vibrations increased the circulation of the blood .

In the 1890s Kellogg organized the Sanitarium Equipment Company, which constructed a variety of devices to increase the circulation of the blood, to improve digestion, and to aid in weight reduction.

From the mechanical therapy department came the vibratory chair.

The chair shakes rather violently and is painful to sit in but after a few minutes of treatment it would supposedly stimulate intestinal peristalsis. A longer treatment would cure headaches and back pain and would also increase the supply of healthy oxygen to the body.

Some were his inventions; others originally invented by Gustav Zander, Kellogg adapted and improved. These devices included, for example, a bar to vibrate the hands, arms, upper spine, and head; a revolving ribbed cylinder for applying friction to the bottom of the feet; and a vibrating belt, which has become standard equipment for weight-reducing salons.

Gustav Zander, M.D., a Swedish physician and director of the Medico-Mechanical Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, gained widespread fame at the end of the 19th century because of his application of steam power to mechanical therapy. Only a few of Zander's more than 70 steam-powered devices were massage machines. Zander's devices were so popular, and their application to the gymnastic movement so widely accepted, that Zander Institutes were opened throughout Europe and the United States.

The use of mechanical devices was both praised and criticized in the late 19th century. Taylor provides this discourse on the benefits of mechanical devices, in 1904: "The natural rate of motion of the voluntary muscles is considerably greater than is that of the involuntary which preside over the movements of the abdomen and its contents. The respiratory and the peristaltic movements are slower than those of the hand. It follows that motions, natural for the hand of a massage operator, do not so apply to visceral parts as to merge with and assist those of the latter. The imparted motion will not agree as to time with the pre-existing motion. This disagreement does not exist in case of the mechanical processes."

At the Massachusetts General Hospital, in 1904 a Medico-Mechanical Department, commonly known as the Zander Room, was established with the installation of fifty-four machines, invented by Dr. J. G. Zander and with one exception all imported from Stockholm. In 1907 there had developed, in the Out-Patient Department basement, provision for hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, massage, and ultraviolet therapy, under the direction of Miss Ruth Dupee. These machines were devised so as to perform all the motions of the body and so exercise all the muscles. The patient was strapped to the apparatus, the motor stated, and the joints and muscles were exercised. While producing good results in many cases, the machines failed to be satisfactory because they operated without any volition on the part of the patient or the development of any will to recover on his part. From World War I to World War II fell out of favor at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The majority of these apparatus vibrated the subject en masse. The next advance step was the introduction of vibration apparatus by means of which treatment could be more localized, the apparatus better controlled, and capable of being applied with a greater nicety of technique.

The first attempts at electrical massage were either battery-powered devices or those operated by foot or hand mechanisms moving a wheel or friction belt. One of the first battery-powered massage devices was the Swedish vibrator. This little device was made of solid brass attached to a wooden handle. Etched into the sides of the brass body are images of lightning bolts indicating the electrical character of the device.

The invention of Victorian vibrators using dry-cell batteries was the precursor to modern alkaline-battery powered vibrators, and the Victorian vibrators were often sold alongside the first alternating electric-current vibrators introduced in 1902.

Today there are literally hundreds of vibrating machines available, from vibrating pillows to vibrating plastic novelty ladybugs. You can even get vibrating ball point pens. Vibrators are used by chiropractors, massage practitioners, physical therapists and by millions at home.