Shoe-Fitting X-Ray Machine

By Alex in Fashion, Gadgets, Hacks & Mods on Mar 6, 2008 at 6:23 pm

That’s an old shoe-fitting x-ray machine, which was a popular gimmick in shoe stores in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The machine went the way of the dodo bird when it was discovered that the hazards from x-ray radiation weren’t worth the proper fit of shoes:

The primary component of a shoe-fitting x-ray unit was the fluoroscope which consisted essentially of an x-ray tube mounted near the floor and wholly or partially enclosed in a shielded box and a fluorescent screen. The x-rays penetrated the shoes and feet and then struck the fluorescent light. This resulted in an image of the feet within the shoes. The fluorescent image was reflected to three viewing ports at the top of the cabinet, where the customer, the salesperson, and a third person (your mother?) could view the image at the same time.

The radiation hazards associated with shoe fitting x-ray units were recognized as early as 1950. The machines were often out of adjustment and were constructed so radiation leaked into the surrounding area.

This particular unit, however, was in operation in a shoe store in West Virginia as late as 1981: Link – Thanks choggie!

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cybele
Mar 6th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I have a distinct recollection of using one of those at a Buster Brown store in the 70s.

Do I have foot cancer now?
Dave9
Mar 6th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
There was a law on the books for a long time in California making these illegal.
Barbwire
Mar 7th, 2008 at 12:07 am
I loved those things as a child. I don’t think I suffered any damage.
salsa
Mar 7th, 2008 at 2:23 am
I had an engineering professor who described these as an example of how we reveal increasingly complex and potentially harmful phenomena as we apply materials science without discretion.

Then he went on to explain how he used to run away from his mother when they went shopping– he would sprint to the shoe store that had an X-Ray shoe fitter machine and stare into it for what seemed like hours, just flicking his toes around inside his shoes and giggling.
ted
Mar 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Discontinued along with the x-ray underwear and bathing suit fitters.
Edward K. Hudson
Nov 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I’ve been researching these devices and actually they seem to have been in use from the 1920′s through the late 1950′s, although I found references that some were still in use as late as the early 1970′s (especially in Britain and Canada)! The common “dose” would be 20 seconds or so although some machines could be set from 5 to 45 seconds with a timer; later, legislation made the limit 5 seconds. In the 40′s, the American Standards Association established a “safe standard or tolerance dose,” that the feet receive no more than 2R per 5 second exposure. It seems that 60 percent of the tested machines were in the “safe range,” although overall the range was found to be 7R to 14R per 20 second exposure. I haven’t found any reports of injury to customers, but the doses were certainly higher than is considered safe now, and there were a couple of recorded operator injuries (burnt leg, dermatitis of the hand).
P Slater
Jan 21st, 2009 at 7:43 am
In these days when much has been learned from Space, is it not possible to reintroduce these machines and incorporate some safety shield to protect users’? These machines would be a boon today when much footwear is produced globally. As is well known often a person who’s shoe size is generally say size 5 can manage with a smaller size depending on the manufacturer.
I would appreciate a direct comment, please via my e-mail.
mike20
Jan 23rd, 2009 at 7:03 pm
i have one of these would anyone be intrested in buying it from me? mike2020@live.com
Herb L.
Sep 9th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
I’ve got one for sale too!

hlienau@gmail.com
Nelda E
Oct 11th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
They had these in the 40′s when I was a child….I thought it was so exciting to see my toes! It was at the Red Goose Shoe Store in Ft Worth Texas….after buying shoes you could pull the neck of a big plastic red goose and it would lay an egg with a prize…..what a simple and fun life.
Maureen S
Jan 11th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I used to play with the thing…thinking it was so much fun to look at the skeleton of my feet. I had thyroid cancer at age 51, resulting in complete removal…and now I have a strange quarter size lump on the top of my foot. Now I’m scared.
Bruce T
Apr 9th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
are they worth anything? I have one.
richard chilton
May 21st, 2010 at 6:28 pm
i would have to say, assuming the contribution of Mr. Hudson is correct, that if the once-common “safe” exposure was 8R per 20 second exposure, that a one minute dose could be up to 25R and more, for one occurrence, and breaking the 50R mark with two.

When the Mutually-Assurred Destruction (or MAD) rational of nuclear deterrence was formulated, then-Federal Defense Secretary Robert McNamera had a study done with the then-current measurement used for the megatonnage needed to effectively whipe out the human race from radiation exposure, and it was determined in 1962 that a fatal dose would be an arbitrary 40R.

(the context would be an exchange of 200 missiles, whose combined megatonnage would equal a mean dispersion of about 800R across and throughout the planet, within a variety of time models then calibrated to where various U.S. and U.S.S.R. targets would have been liquidated, wind patterns, “leakage,” missiles not reaching their targets, etc.; as a species cockroaches still thrive in an 800R atmosphere, so life would not end, jus’ revert to an earlier experience in a post-nuclear world).

So from the information provided above, one could surmise that an individual could conceivably receive an over-the-top, fatal dosage of radiation with just two exposures from these machines.

That they should be historic items on display, demonstrating through such display a failure of technology saved and not destroyed as a technological witness of that failure, we as a species need to look at the amount of accumulative radiation that has been contributed by human arrogance, and not pass off that contribution as naturally-bourne radon, which does exist, but not as the background radiation which in actuality has been caused by Humanity, which irradiates us all, “Now, More Than Ever.”
bob lou
Jan 26th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
I remember these, one was in a shoe store downtown I think it was there up until the 1960′s. I remember last time I tried it was not working, I dont’ know if they turned it off or it was out of order. Of course it was removed from the store some years ago.

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