Did Victorians really treat headaches by hammering metal helmets?

A sepia photograph has been making the rounds on Instagram, Reddit, and Facebook again, captioned as an 1890s headache cure called “vibration therapy.” In the image, a man’s head is stuffed inside a bucket-shaped metal helmet resting on an anvil, while a second man winds up with a sledgehammer. The latest version claims doctors used this contraption to …