E-Mail Post To A Friend

Email a copy of 'Shoe-Fitting X-Ray Machine' to a friend

* Required Field

Your Name: *

Your E-Mail: *

Your Remark:

Friend's Name: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Friend's E-Mail: *

Separate multiple entries with a comma. Maximum 5 entries.

Image Verification: *

 Loading ...

1. cybele
   March 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?

2. Dave9
   March 6th, 2008 at 10:44 pm

   There was a law on the books for a long time in California making these illegal.

3. Barbwire
   March 7th, 2008 at 12:07 am

   I loved those things as a child. I don’t think I suffered any damage.

4. salsa
   March 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.

5. ted
   March 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

   Discontinued along with the x-ray underwear and bathing suit fitters.

6. Edward K. Hudson
   November 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).

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT