The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, Minneapolis
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Though small, and hidden in a mall, the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices is well worth an hour or two if you're in the Twin Cities. If you can't figure it out from the name, the museum is home to items that most modern, western medicine frowns upon, in other words: items used for quackery. From drills for trepanation, to devices to the Recto Rotor (yes, it is what you're thinking1), there's a surprising number of items on display that are, when not downright unhealthy, of limited medical value. Of course, they failed to receive an FDA2 approval - in those rare cases when it really was attempted.
The Exhibits
There are a surprising number of devices solely for the purpose of applying electrical current to the genitalia, with seemingly no end to the number of things that this procedure could cure, including mental illness, insomnia, obesity, nervousness, and high blood pressure.
The so-called Psychograph
However, perhaps the most interesting piece of equipment is the 'psychograph', an antique mechanical phrenologial device. Take a mechanical adding machine and a bunch of clockwork, and connect it via a shock of wires to what looks like an unholy marriage between a typewriter and a colander and you'll have the 'psychograph'.
The best part is that it still works and, despite how it looks, is still safe to use. At least by a trained professional. For a nominal fee, a trained professional (The person who did a researcher's reading claimed he was trained only in operation of the machine however, was not trained in phrenology) will sit you in the device, lower the medusa's headpiece firmly onto your skull and let the machine do it's thing. For a few seconds it will click and whirr and you'll get a crude and lengthy printout to take home and show your friends. It contains a customized and rather thorough personal readout for you and you alone based on the bumps on your skull. From how aggressive and outgoing you are, to what kinds of people you like to hang out with, it'll tell all.
Of course it's all hogwash, but it's a good bit of fun, and a more entertaining examination that most people typically get when the go to the clinic.
Some More Notable Exhibits
An eyeball massager called The Natural Eye Normalizer advertised as a means to restore keen eyesight by gently massaging the eyes.
A foot powered breast pump, then sold for $9.95, which consists of the pump, two rubber caps and a few hoses and was supposed to enlarge women's breasts by the vacuum3.
The prostate gland warmer of 1918: a blue light bulb was used to create warmth in order to 'stimulate the abdominal brain'4.
A shoe-fitting X-ray box: a fully working X-ray tube which produces an image of the foot within a shoe in order to see whether they fit together. Featuring essentially no radiation shielding, these devices were forbidden by 1970 on account of the radiation hazards, but the last one was taken out of service in 1981.
Several devices which add 'much needed' radiation to drinking water. In the 1920ies to 1940ies, quacks were still able to advertise radioactivity as beneficial to your health.
They even have a lie detector, which unfortunately you can't take for a test drive. They also have sample pamphlets (reprints) from across time and space advertising various quack cures and devices.
Opening Hours
They generally have limited hours, so check before you go, and don't expect to spend a day there, it's not more than two rooms, but it has stuff you'll never see anywhere else and is well worth a visit, even if you're not into medicine. Admission is free! Details about address and opening hours can be obtained from the museum's web site.
