[Agent-noun, on L. models, f. VIBRATE v. + -OR. Cf. It. vibratore.]
1. That which vibrates, or causes vibration.
a. One of the vibrating reeds of an organ, harmonium, etc., by which the sound is produced.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 3391. Notes or vibrators, keys, pipes, stops, &c., for harmonium making or organ building.
1873. Routledge’s Yng. Gentl. Mag., Feb., 167/1. This vibrator is the origin of our reed instruments.
1885. C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Receipts, Ser. IV. 293/1. There can be no escape of wind from the wind-chest, except through the vibrators and pallet-holes.
b. One or other of various appliances, instruments or parts, which have or cause a vibratory motion or action. Also attrib.
A number of these are specified in recent American Dicts.
1888. Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 706/1. A composition roller, called a vibrator.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Voc., 152. Vibrator rollers, those rollers on a machine which have a vibrating motion, and convey the ink to the slab for distribution.
1906. Daily Chron., 6 April, 9/5. There are also beauty rollers and massage vibrators.
2. Math. (See quot.)
1879. Thomson & Tait, Nat. Phil., I. I. § 345. The reciprocal of this time we shall call … the rapidity of the system, for convenience of comparison with the frequency of a vibrator or of a rotator, which is the name commonly given to the reciprocal of its period.
