The Fat Jiggling Machine – Legacy of Dr. Kellogg

Found on eBay: A vintage exercise device that can… well, uh… I don’t know.

Can you figure it out? It seems even the proud new owner has no idea.

He told me, “I got it at this junk shop in Newark, NY. I saw it and thought it was weird and cool and had no clue what it was.”

Turns out, this contraption – which looks like some sort of pre-Industrial Revolution taffy puller – was made by Battle Creek Equipment in Michigan. The company has a long history of making health and fitness equipment, along with other medical devices.

Battle Creek Equipment was found by the late Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, brother of cereal-maker, W.K. Kellogg. Doc Harvey was an odd duck; with radical theories on how to achieve good health.

In 1994, Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Broderick starred in The Road to Wellville, a comedy about Dr. Kellogg and his 1900s Battle Creek Sanitarium; where Dr. Kellogg served as chief medical officer.

Here’s the trailer:

People came from far and wide to stay at the sanitarium in hopes of achieving better health. Dr. Kellogg advocated a vegetarianism, elimination of meat from one’s diet, and he was a very strong proponent of eating nuts.

For Kellogg, nut described Dr. Kellogg pretty well. He also devoted much of his time to sexual issues; such as circumcision and discouraging masturbation.

As for the taffy puller found on Ebay, from looking at it, it would appear the user hoists themselves on the machine and gets a right-royal jiggle-massage in the butt and thigh department.

They are apparently referred to as “roller massagers”. A browse through the Diet Blog archives found at least one happy customer from the 1970s.

I would love to find one of those roller machine with the dowls that roll around and you sit front or back or side and it does help break the fat down. I used one at a Gloria Marhalls back in the 70′s.