Extropia’s Curious Science: Celestial Bed

EXTROPIA’S CURIOUS SCIENCE: CELESTIAL BED

If you dare peek in your email’s spam folder, there’s a fair chance that you’ll find one or two promotions for something that supposedly boosts your sexual prowess.

There’s nothing new about such claims. Way back in the 1770s, one James Graham (who, having studied medicine in his native Scotland moved to Philadelphia to practice as an eye specialist), encountered Ben Franklin’s demonstrations with electricity, and decided he could market such power to society ladies.

(James Graham. Image from wikimedia commons)

In 1775 he and his brother William moved to London, intent on doing just that. The Grahams provided such things as ‘aetherial balsams’ and as their fame grew they eventually opened the ‘Temple Aesculapio Sacrum’ also known as the ‘Temple of Health’ in 1779.

The centrepiece of this temple could be found in a private room on the second floor. The princely sum of £50 (£500 in today’s money) bought you a spell on the Celestial Bed. It was charged with electrical current and this meant “the barren must certainly become more fruitful when they are powerfully agitated in the delights of love”. Or so the brothers claimed.

It turned out, however, that not enough people were convinced enough to fork out £50 for a romp on the Celestial Bed, and so the Grahams never managed to recoup the £10,000 investment. They closed down their Temple of Health and James Graham moved back to Edinburg where he lectured on the benefits of healthy eating until his untimely death in 1749 from a burst blood vessel. He was 49 years old.

REFERENCES

“Far Out” by Mark Pilkington