Budget Vacations - Questionable Medical Devices Collection

Phrenology machine

As a public service, during these cash strapped times, I've been suggesting budget vacation destinations. Of course, I always strive to provide attractions that are of great historical or educational value. 

For that reason, today's recommendation is the  "Questionable Medical Device" collection of the Science Museum of Minnesota. It is a comprehensive overview of medical quackery and mechanisms of dubious therapeutic value. 

It includes phrenology machines, curative devices that squirted out cancer-causing doses of radiation, various contraptions that futilely harnessed the wondrous powers of magnetism, foot powered breast enlarging pumps and more. 

The exhibit originally assembled by Bob McCoy who started the collection when he bought a few phrenology machines and for a small fee demonstrated them in a shop in Minnesota. Soon he began to acquire other devices 

For a while he moved his collection to its own museum, but it was eventually donated to the Science Museum of Minnesota where it now resides. So, if you're in the area drop by and check it out and, as always, pack yourself a picnic lunch.