The shoe fitting fluoroscope x-ray machine was a common fixture in shoe stores during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. A typical unit consisted of a vertical wooden cabinet with an opening near the bottom into which the feet were placed.
When you looked through one of the three viewing ports on the top of the cabinet (e.g., one for the child being fitted, one for the child's parent, and the third for the shoe salesman or saleswoman), you would see a fluorescent image of the bones of the feet and the outline of the shoes.
In the 1960s shoe-fitting machines were prohibited, because by then they began to see the dangers of radiation.
4 comment(s):
Awesome Shoe...
I loved those things when I was a kid. I never passed one up without trying it, and apparently suffered no damage.
Just looked these things up as I too used them as a kid. Today, just found out that's the probable cause of my thyroid and parathyroid medical conditions. They also caused cataracts to develope. The radiation came straight up the child.
This type machine was in the shoe department of a store in the small town I grew up in - in SC. My mother had the good sense to test for fit the old-fashioned way...by pressing her finger at the end of the shoe to see how much room there was. She had the good sense to reason out that it wasn't safe.
Post a Comment