Customer Reviews

American Sex Machines: The Hidden History of Sex at the U.S. Patent Office

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The book's cover and its title are unfortunate: they give this work the appearance of something steamy or sexually alluring, when in fact it is a carefully researched and serious work of great general interest. Hoag Levins investigated the Patent Office for inventions having to do with devices involving the human sex organs and copulation. The author combed the archives and found more than 800 inventions pertaining to the subject. The book organizes these inventions in terms of general categories, and in the process shows how the Patent Office reflects the social preoccupation of the times. Starting with a profusion of devices aimed at stopping maturbation (a nineteenth century obsession) it covers the field up to the current flurry of AIDS-inspired protection devices such as oral condoms and condom garnments. In between is a truly extraordinary display of Yankee inventiveness, as well as a slightly insane (if not downright dangerous) group of contrivances designed to enhance erections, stimulate nipples, exercise muscles, or defend against rapists. The latter includes a vaginal device that would inject a quick-acting anesthetic into the unwanted intruded penis of a violator.

The book is scholarly and enlightening. For instance, the history of the brassiere is detailed and concise; it breaks away from the urban myths and other nonsense pertaining to the invention of this device and presents and erudite account of the bra, from its early inception as a chest compression device to its current post-feminist status. The book contains a section of chapter notes describing the source material and additional readings, and it has a good index. The book is written with grace and humor and leaves the reader well informed, if not enlightened.

AMERICAN SEX MACHINES by HOAG LEVINS This entertaining history of sex technology, as revealed by a trawling of the US Patent Office files, leaves a lasting first impression, to wit: Why didn't I think of that, and think of it FIRST? Alas, Hoag has beaten us to it, but we can take solace from the fact that he's made a fine job of it. From the 1840's to the present, the diligent Mr Levins has assembled the wackiest, wildest, and at times plain scariest gadgets ever devised to enhance or inhibit human copulation. The original Patent Office diagrams leave little to the imagination, and what you DO imagine isn't always pretty. The anti-rape vaginal harpoon device alone is simply... well, perhaps I've said enough on that score. But Hoag's book is more than just a compilation of twisted inventions - it uses the history of American sex patents as a mirror to hold up to the wider sexual history of American society. As he points out, the Patent Office is not there to make moral judgements, but simply to decide if an idea was new. As a result we get an uncensored insight into the concerns, fears and lusts of generations who were loathe to speak or write of them. But we shouldn't feel too superior - what will future generations make of our fascination for silicone enhanced breasts? American Sex Machines, like sex itself, is amusing, disturbing, and occassionally enlightening. Great fun!

Once in a while, even with a sexy title, there comes along a book that captures your imagination. This is one of those books. It is wonderfully written, researched, and contains a wry sense of humor. It is filled with facts that come from the patent office that one would never think to look up on their own. It contains hundred of examples of how yankee engineering tried to solve every sexual problem and situation since the begining of this country. It is amazing, even when birth control devises were illegal, there were patent searches for devises that tried to solve the problem. This is a rare find of a book that held my interest from the first page to the very last one. It also has the original submitted drawings for the patents themselves. It is filled with almost every conceivable devise made by those who tried to solved the sexual situations and problems as they arose. It covers every major type of sexual situation and problem that this country has faced since it's begining. Another thing that this book brings out is how you can tell the mood of the country during each sexual phase by what kinds of patents were applied for, how many, and over how long of a period they came. This is a wonderful document historical writing that belongs in everyone's collection of this type of writing. Do not be fooled by the cover; a serious work that hits the nail right on the head. Thank you Mr. Levins.

This book is an entertaining, interesting, and informative read. It explores the absurdity of historical anti-sex crusaders. Interesting discussions about how, up through about the 1930s, it was common belief (even in America) that masturbation and wet dreams caused physical illnesses! Discusses some of the gruesome devices patented to try to stop masturbation and wet dreams. This is relevant in the modern world because even though no sane person today would claim these things cause physical harm, the anti-sex fundies do make equally ridiculous claims about other issues. Things like porn, homosexuality, sex before marriage, etc. This book shows that some things haven't changed all that much in 100 - 200 years.

I bought this book sight based sight unseen solely on the description years ago out of curiosity. I looked through it at the time and was moderately amused, but then put it on the shelf until recently. A conversation about I'd had about inventions reminded me of this and I ended up bringing it to a gathering for some friends to see. Everyone looked at it in complete disbelief of the sorts of things that had been patented over the past 100 years. Certainly I got a lot of strange looks for owning such a title, but more than a few people were absolutely fascinated by it.