Vintage nozzle dimensions

Hi all,

Perhaps this should be in devices, but I reckoned this might be a place I'd find more people who would know/remember.

I'd be very grateful if people could give me descriptions of common enema nozzles they remember or know of from the golden age. In particular wondering about bulb nozzles. I assume bulb syringes came with their own, were these similar or different to those you would attach to a hose? How long/wide were they? I know there were lots of different ones, so what was average and what would be large/small?

To explain part of my reasons for asking, I'm totally blind so unable to see pictures, I can find information for a lot of modern devices but have been given to understand designs have changed. I might have mis-interpreted something there I don't know.

Not wishing to be confrontational, but before anyone suggests I 'just buy one', I have neither the disposable cash nor, more importantly, private space to store such equipment living with my family.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Many bulb syringes had a pretty common rectal nozzle about 3 inches in length. These were usually quite interchangeable with a typical type of enema tubing and bag. They were also quite thin.

Those larger douche bulbs had a nozzle about 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter and about 6 inches in length. The spray patterns varied and were ostensibly designed to disperse the solution rather than a forward flow that was thought to be harmful to the delicate vaginal tissues. Some were even curved.

Most of these nozzles were difficult to adapt to typical enema tubing for bag use. Later on, some of the newer douche bulbs also came with an adapter or even a bulbous rectal nozzle.

Many of us quite enjoy the longer and thicker nozzles for enema use. My vintage douche nozzles with the bulbous tip, seem to hit my prostate just right!

Thank you sse4fun, very useful info.

I don 't actually believe most were any BIGGER!

Most were flared so that they stayed in better, and there were more choices in any one store.

In those days you could get both straight and curved feminine nozzles. according to her younger sister in Saskatchewan, My Mom was given given two different "feminine" nozzles, a straight one for use reclining in the bathtub which is the method her Mom mostly pushed her to use, and a curved one for use sitting on the toilet or standing in the shower. By the time her younger sister was taught to douche she was only given a straight nozzle, she thinks it was because that was 4 years later and the curved ones had become too hard to find.

We had a Sears & Roebuck catalog in our out house and were tickled pink when they went for "Modern" toilet paper rolls. Brother and i had the hot spots ear marked in it for ready reference. Sister figured out what we had arranged and slyly used them up. Ouch, We needed a fix.

Well the squeeze douche nozzles were immense to our little eyes. I remember wondering why they were so exaggerated and shapely. Just looking at the pictures gave us all kinds of wonderment.

Vintage nozzles that have a threaded connections not all the same. I am trying to find a solution to make all my vintage nozzles connect to the same size threaded connector. Not sure if some were metric threads, common NPS threads or what. If anyone has a solution please let me know. Common 5/16 inch, 7/16 etc. threaded male connectors at a hardware store seems to not be the right threaded pitch. Any ideas?

You want to use a adaptator who fit to all, alas , no mechanical solution. But you can use a food or medical silicon tube and a clip like it is used for the landmower machine petrol tube.

Generally if you go back to the same brand you will find the threads to be the same

When my parent started giving each other enemas one reason they agreed on the "no equipment sharing" rule was exactly that. The little bit of stuff Dad had was all "Faultless" brand. Mom had all Canadian stuff none of which was Faultless brand

Too many of the hoes and fittings did not cross over

I remember looking in a shop window in harrow with my wife in about 1966 and her looking a a very large nozzle and saying that would your eyes water.. It was about 6" long and 2" dia.

Our family had a combination kit. Sold to adapt a hot water bottle to enema/douche use. The kit contained a stopper with nipple that would be screwed into the neck of the hot water bottle and the provided rubber hose slid over the nipple. The other end of the hose had a threaded fitting for attaching one of the four included nozzles.

The smallest was a child enema nozzle. Straight sided, slightly narrower than a pencil and about 2.5 inches long.

The next was an adult enema nozzle. It was about 6 inches long with the profile of a baseball bat and about the width of a pencil at its widest.

Then there was the retention nozzle. It was about 5 inches long with a bulb at the tip. (It reminded me of a rosebud on a stem.) The bulbous tip was 3/4 inch in diameter at its widest with a straight shaft.

Finally was the douche nozzle, it was straight, 8 inches long with 4 fluted with holes that came out the sides of the nozzle.

After my aunt died, a new nozzle appeared in the box. I was a curved douche nozzle, same basic dimensions of the original, but curved along its length.

My first enemas (at age 10) were given with the adult nozzle with only 3 inches inserted. Gradually, more was inserted as I grew. My mom then switched me to the retention nozzle. It stayed put (mom didn't need to hold it in place as she had with the other nozzle.)

When I started giving myself enemas, I tried all the nozzles. The retention became my favorite since I liked to walk around house naked as I took and held the enema.

I remember, that as a kid, a douche bulb had what seemed to be an enormous nozzle and wondering why it was so exaggerated. Our family nozzle was a 20 inch orange colon tube, open on the end and eyed on one side. It was only a quarter inch thick. Mom liked to grease it while we watched and then get us to give her our butt for it. We got less than half of it, but thought of the whole thing.

My first enemas were given with a red squeeze bulb that had a black tube that was about three inches long and 1/4 inch diameter. When I graduated to using and enema bag, mom used a douche nozzle about six inches long. When I was about 11, she brought home a new enema kit with the a regular size douche nozzle, one that was a couple of inches longer, and one which was very long maybe 15 inches but narrower and more flexible. I asked her what the long nozzle was for and she told me it was for giving me good cleaning out. That nozzle scared me and I begged her not to use it on me but she told me to strip off and go to the bathroom. She had to go to my room and pull me down the hall and give me a couple of swats on my bum to get me in the tub. She inserted that nozzle gently and it didn’t hurt but I still didn’t like it. I got it regularly anyway.

If my memory serves the vintage nozzles were more elaborate than today’s standard nozzles. The douche was much longer and curved, while both the douche and enema had somewhat of a bulbous tip.

I cannot help wonder whether these big douche nozzles were unofficially meant to be used for recreation purposes. Of course, in those days, one could not sell sex toys openly in many locales, but one could sell hygienic appliances... Recall these were the days when vibrators were sold for "relaxing" purposes.

The nozzle was the thing that I remembered the most while taking my first enema. It was, as I later found out, made of Bakelyte, Black, and probably 7-8 inches in length. It was structured along the lines of todays douche nozzle, except it was most likely 1\2 again the size. It was, to say the least, a thrilling experience.

Gape: Today's douche nozzles have a cross-shaped cross-section and very small holes on the side, is this what it was like? sounds uncomfortable in an anus!

If my Mother used a bag the nozzle was a small white one with the hole at the end. If she used the bulb one, it was the longer one, white, with holes all along the shaft.

ToyPlayer: Interesting. Was the nozzle for the bulb round, or other shape?

Mom's enema equipment included two bat-shaped nozzles suitable for any age except infancy and two multi-holed douche-type nozzles _ one straight and one curved. The nozzles had both screw-on and plug-in connectors, leading me to assume that one set came with our enema can and the other from a combination bag , which was used only as a hot water bottle..

The standardization of screw threads has always been a nice thought but seldom a reality. For many years industry has always tried to use non-standard threads on specialized equipment so you will have to buy only their replacement parts if things are to fit as designed. The Singer Sewing machine was notorious for specialized threads that fit no other sewing machine. A look in modern machine tool handbooks will show many special standard threads. These were the threads not often found in the local hardware store but taps and dies for them could be ordered at extra cost.

Go back in time to around 1900 and even more special threads are to be found in the old engineering handbooks. Then there are the specialty threads that only fit certain items. It is no wonder that the nozzles of the past are hard to adapt unless one is proficient with vintage thread diameters and pitches which will be part of our lives for many years to come.

Machine work to recreate matching threads for vintage nozzles is not for the weak.

Machine work to recreate matching threads for vintage nozzles is not for the weak.

....... nor is it for people without a lathe and the required tooling.

I suspect that nowadays they are manufactured all by more or less the same group of Chinese manufacturers.

I just remember that mom never threw away a nozzle and had a box of them in her underwear drawer. She must have had 20 nozzles, from infant to douche and most of them were real early by the color which was black for most. I wish I had pinched them back in the day because I'm sure they all got tossed at some point.. So sad.

....... nor is it for people without a lathe and the required tooling.

Yes, with the right machines and skill(s) to operate them, just about anything can be reproduced.

They now make 3D printers that can turn out anything plastic. They used to be really expensive but now with a few hundred dollars and basic computer skills you can make anything. We recently made a plastic bezel that you couldn't get for a hard to find dash accessory and we turned it out in a half hour and even in the right color plastic.. enema nozzles.. Piece of cake.

Moppys jalopy: Is the plastic used in these printers safe for intimate human contact? Normally, sex toys (going into rectum or vagina) and medical devices going inside should be made with plastic or silicone safe for that purpose.

....... nor is it for people without a lathe and the required tooling.

Yes, with the right machines and skill(s) to operate them, just about anything can be reproduced.

.......... and yes, MissStress, I've made my fair share of unique pieces in a fully outfitted machine shop.

Moppys jalopy: Is the plastic used in these printers safe for intimate human contact? Normally, sex toys (going into rectum or vagina) and medical devices going inside should be made with plastic or silicone safe for that purpose.

The 3D printing process involves laying thin layers of melted plastic to build objects.. These "layers" are visible upon inspection of the finished piece to some degree, even on the higher end printers. As result, these layers although very fine and closely merged, create a more "porous" surface on the plastic than what would occur with a traditional injection molded plastic piece.

These microscopic crevices, pores, WILL trap and harbor bacteria and other nasty stuff.. Also, from what I have read ABS in not body safe, however most PLA and PETG is - but, I have read that microscopic particles, such as wear from plated extrusion nozzles and other parts may render body safe material as no longer body safe due to contamination.

HOWEVER - Sanding of finished pieces with light grit paper will smooth rough textures and seal MOST fine cracks, crevices and holes to some degree. Parts may then be coated with a body safe material to fully seal the surface. Aluminite clear casting 2 part epoxy is "FDA compliant" for use in casting parts that are safe for surfaces that will contact food; I have read of suggestions that that stuff MIGHT make suitable surface coating for 3D printed sex toys.

The 3D printing process can produce some wonderful results. But most of the truly remarkable results that you may have seen likely had post printing finishing work done on them as well, such as acetone vapor smoothing on ABS, sanding, polishing, and I've seen "self leveling" epoxy coating for PLA and other material that advertised striking results in smoothing finished pieces - albeit NOT FDA approved, certified, or other.

Moppys jalopy: Is the plastic used in these printers safe for intimate human contact?

To be honest I've only made car parts with mine (actually the sons) so I don't know. I do know they are evolving at a very fast pace and are coming out with new types of plastic to use. I would assume that it would only be a matter of time before they get a dense tight plastic suitable for toys. In the meantime maybe soaking in bleach solution followed by alcohol or running through a dishwasher would help. Not using other peoples nozzles would also be a safety factor. Have fun people, stay safe.

It's not only porosity and germs, it is also that plastics that are not made specifically for contact with mucosas, or with food, may release chemicals.