The Museum's most popular device is the Psycograph, an antique phrenology
machine.
Phrenology,
created by Austrian physician
Franz Joseph
Gall, was the 'in theory' of the 19th century for determining personality.
According to phrenology, different parts of the brain were "organs" controlling
various character traits. If your head is bigger in an area, you have more
of that trait. But if it's flat, there's nothing in there!
The Psycograph was patented in 1905
by Henry Lavery of Superior WI. His first machine with 1,900 parts didn't
work! A quarter century later, still building phrenology machines, Mr. Lavery
recruited Mr. Frank P. White as an investor and began doing business as the
Psycograph Company in the Builders Exchange,
Minneapolis MN.
The psycographs
were a novelty device featured in department stores and theatre lobbies during
the Great Depression . The Psycograph Company operated from 1929-1937.
Left: Phrenology in the 1990's at the Museum of Questionable Devices.
Above right: Woman and phrenologist from Psycograph advertisement, ca.
1932.
"You Ought to Have Your Head Examined"
That's our motto! Today, museum visitors get their heads 'examined' in Henry
Lavery's antique phrenology machines. The head piece, which looks like a
metal basket measures the head at 32 points per a five-point scale ranging
from "Deficient" to "Very Superior."
The data is sent to a printing mechanism which block prints individualized "readings" on a paper tape. For a true life example of a Psycograph reading check out Barb's web site about her visit to the museum, with transposed Phrenology reading and vocational chart results!
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Above: Michelle Carlson has her head examined.
.
Left: Photo by Dennis
Lewandowski.
Right: Photo by
Laura Koehn. Photos used with
permission.
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Phrenology segment from "Quackery Gallery":
full VHS available for less than $10 in our Gift Store
The Psycograph was patented in 1905
by Henry Lavery of Superior WI. His first machine with 1,900 parts didn't
work! A quarter century later, still building phrenology machines, Mr. Lavery
recruited Mr. Frank P. White as an investor and began doing business as the
The psycographs
were a novelty device featured in department stores and theatre lobbies during
the Great Depression . The Psycograph Company operated from 1929-1937.
The data is sent to a printing mechanism which block prints individualized "readings" on a paper tape. For a true life example of a Psycograph reading check out Barb's 
