When Shoes Were Fit with X-Rays

The Chinese would check for &#x27;illegal&#x27; pregnancies during the days of the one-child policy. They would use a solid state x-ray emitter as a source of radiation and a passive fluorescent screen, both probably because there was no reliable electrical power available and this is a very cheap to manufacture setup. The dose emitted would be quite high due to the insensitivity of the screen, the degradation over time of the source (requiring a higher than necessary quantity of radioactive material at the start to get a long useful operating life) and the duration, on the order of seconds.<p>I&#x27;ve tried to find a video of this but alas, no luck. The one I remember seeing was extremely primitive, safety was basically non-existent, both for the woman being screened (and her unborn child, quite possibly to be aborted anyway if detected) and the operator of the device.

Boy, people were <i>careless and stupid</i> back then.<p>I wonder how many things we do today will be seen in a similar way 50 years from now. If you believe everything you read somewhere online, then pretty much anything today is poisonous and will kill us, but just statistically some of these have to be right.

<i>They were designed to look like furniture, not medical objects. One on view at Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science has floral cut-outs in its wooden cabinet, giving it the look of an heirloom chest.</i><p>A lot of late 19&#x2F;early 20th century equipment is like that. Wood was a common material and ornate design was simply a way to show off craftsmanship.

Could we actually do this in a safe way? Having ill fitting shoes can cause a lot of long term damage. There could be a case that it&#x27;s worth the X-ray risk...

I have problems ordering shoes online and getting the fit right. Depending on brand and type of shoe, I can be anywhere between 44 and 46. And then the US and EU size and cm don&#x27;t match up, my Onitsuka are 11-45-28.5 and fit exactly the same as Chucks, which are 11-44.5-29. But cycling shoes are the worst, and I have to buy those online, because local bike shops don&#x27;t offer a huge choice. Had to return a pair of Giro two times, first size 45, then 45.5 and 46 was the one that fit. We need more standardized sizing, but how to get all manufacturers on board? And how about a 3D foot scanner and online filters which pick the correct size based on your 3d foot model?

Is there no service that uses automation to make custom-fitted shoes yet? This seemed like such an obvious thing to me several years ago when 3d printing and the like started becoming a fad, and I figured there would be a startup that did it (or one of the big companies would work on it). But if anyone is doing it, I as a consumer haven&#x27;t noticed yet. What gives?<p>I can&#x27;t see cost being an issue - when you look at how shoe construction works, it should be straightforward to tweak the shoe shape for each shoe without significant increase in manufacturing cost.

Was in my local shoeshop in the sixties. Have used. Was removed pretty soon after I used it.

A name like &quot;Pedoscope Company&quot; would certainly raise a few eyebrows today!