Hat mould “conformateur”

Jules Van Biervliet (1859-1945) was the first professor of psychology at Ghent University. In 1891, he founded the Laboratory for Experimental Psychology in Ghent, in an age when psychology was separating off from philosophy and becoming more ‘scientific’. This ‘conformateur’ or ‘skull-measuring cap’ belonged to his collection of scientific instruments.

Een craniometer is een toestel dat de schedelvorm en de onregelmatigheden in het schedeloppervlak van een mens opmeet. Craniometers kunnen variëren van simpele toestellen die de basis hoofddiameter meten tot meer ingewikkelde instrumenten die in staat zijn om de volledige schedel in kaart te brengen. Deze hoed behoort tot de laatste categorie.

This cap works with a pin system. The test subject puts the cap on their head. Then all the small individual rods are pushed as close to the skull as possible. There is a sharp pin on the end of each rod. When the cap fits correctly, the ‘cover’, with a layer of cork on the underside, is lowered. The pins press into the cork and leave a print behind of the shape of the test subject’s skull and the irregularities in the skull surface.

Skull measurements were mainly used at the turn of the 20th century in anthropological and ethnological research, among other things, to establish racial characteristics. However, interest in the subject dates back to before that time, reaching a climax at the beginning of the 19th century with the development of phrenology by Frans Joseph Gall. This doctrine claims that intelligence, character and behaviour are determined by the development of the brain, and that this can be deduced from the shape of the skull.