When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

A related phenomenon was x-ray salons, &quot;the most scientific way to remove hair.&quot; Hundreds of these cropped up in the early 20th century, originally growing out of their use in the medical profession. Most targeted working class, immigrant women to the US. They were eventually banned but persisted underground for quite some time.<p>There&#x27;s a good history of them in Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=LZvsCwAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=plucked&amp;hl=en&amp;newbks=1&amp;newbks_redir=0&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiHlLfP-ObsAhWzOH0KHdiqC5UQ6AEwAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&amp;q=%22x-ray%20salons%22&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;books.google.com&#x2F;books?id=LZvsCwAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=fron...</a>

I&#x27;m 49 and I&#x27;m sure I remember there still being machines in stores when I was 7 or 8. Is that possible? I don&#x27;t recall them actually in use - but they were visibly present.<p>(I&#x27;m in the UK)<p>EDIT: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope#Regulation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope#Regul...</a><p>Looks possible.

My 89 year old mother loves to tell the story of her brother and friends spending several hours getting whatever body part they could push through the shoe slot below to be reported on how it looks by another child looking through the scope at the top. They were very disappointed that my uncle&#x27;s head couldn&#x27;t fit so they could examine his brain, (which they always figured had some bats in it)

And after getting a new pair of shoes, you brush your teeth with radioactive toothpaste!<p>&quot;Its radioactive radiation increases the defenses of teeth and gums. The cells are loaded with new life energy, the bacteria are hindered in their destroying effect. &quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Doramad_Radioactive_Toothpaste" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Doramad_Radioactive_Toothpaste</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.orau.org&#x2F;ptp&#x2F;collection&#x2F;quackcures&#x2F;toothpaste.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.orau.org&#x2F;ptp&#x2F;collection&#x2F;quackcures&#x2F;toothpaste.ht...</a>

I remember these machines well. My father was a radiologist and wouldn&#x27;t let us use them. He knew they were dangerous and the shoe sales people were unqualified.<p>As a side note, many of his fellow radiologists lost fingers because they didn&#x27;t follow procedures using shields and lead gloves.

Interesting and also scary - I guess it was ok for customers, but the employees using the machines would probably over time get a serious amount of radiation literally in their face (from what it looks like)? If you think that nowadays while making X-rays the medical personnel will either wear lead-lined aprons or leave the room altogether...

The old shoe store in my small town had one in the corner. My Dad asked about it. The clerk said it was dangerous and didn&#x27;t want to use it. We kids were disappointed.<p>That was post WWII, so I don&#x27;t know how long it&#x27;d been there. The fluoroscope I mean; the shoe store had been there for decades.

Next time you need an X-ray ask the doctor why that costs more than a pair of shoes. I mean they used to include one free with a pair.

&quot;When mm waves were used at the airport (2044)&quot;

The early 20th century had an odd fascination with all things radioactive. I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article entitled &quot;The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off&quot; [1]. I can&#x27;t find a WSJ reprint, but there are online copies available by searching the headline or a CNN article mentions it. [2]<p>Apparently Mr. Byers the maker and an avid drinker of the cola had to be buried in a lead-lined coffin. According to The New York Times [3], Mr. Byers&#x27; death triggered action from the FDA and brought an end to radioactive patent medicines.<p>From the CNN article:<p><i>Evans was an expert at measuring and mathematically modeling the human body&#x27;s uptake and excretion of radioactivity. Based on Byers&#x27; self-reported RadiThor consumption, Evans&#x27; model had predicted that Byers&#x27; body would contain about 100,000 becquerel of radioactivity. (&quot;Becquerel&quot; is an international unit of radioactivity.) What he found was that Byers&#x27; skeletal remains actually had a total of 225,000 becquerel, suggesting that either Evans&#x27; model of radiation uptake was underestimating radium&#x27;s affinity for bone, or alternatively, that Byers had actually understated his personal RadiThor consumption by a factor of at least two. It was not possible to determine which alternative accounted for the discrepancy.</i><p>For the sake of comparison, some water from the Fukushima disaster reads 200,000 becquerel, although different isotopes are involved and exposure limits vary by isotope, Mr. Byers was well beyond a reasonable limit by any measure. [4]<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lateralscience.blogspot.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;12&#x2F;the-radium-water-worked-fine-until-his.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;lateralscience.blogspot.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;12&#x2F;the-radium-water-...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;10&#x2F;health&#x2F;energy-drinks-radioactive&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cnn.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;11&#x2F;10&#x2F;health&#x2F;energy-drinks-radioact...</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1932&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;archives&#x2F;death-stirs-action-on-radium-cures-trade-commission-speeds-its.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1932&#x2F;04&#x2F;02&#x2F;archives&#x2F;death-stirs-acti...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nbcnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;water-6-700-times-more-radioactive-legal-limit-spills-fukushima-flna8C11328045" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nbcnews.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;world&#x2F;water-6-700-times-more-ra...</a>

Michael Caine (as Harry Palmer) using a shoe shop X-Ray machine to examine a suspicious package. It&#x27;s at the end of this clip.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZPlOsrT0raQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ZPlOsrT0raQ</a>

An older friend of mine told me the times were surreal. Doctors would casualy xray you for many minutes even when you got minor symptoms.<p>Then suddendly xray was considered harmful and you would only get on static image when you had serious problems.

Say, why can’t we recreate this with ultrasound?<p>Actually that seems like a good idea. Should I patent it?

I found one of these units at an antique store in Maine, sadly the x-ray tube had been removed. Really nice cabinetry though and I thought this would make an awesome steampunk type accent to a workspace at some point.<p>And while this particular idea had its flaws, the idea of looking at a foot inside a shoe is fundamentally a good one in my opinion. Feet are pretty variable between people and the difference between having the right shoe and the wrong shoe is a good differentiator. I didn&#x27;t appreciate how much until I got a pair of hiking boots (Asolo) that actually fit my particularly shaped foot. My father-in-law had custom shoes made for him on Hong Kong in the 60&#x27;s and would send them a check when ever he wanted a new pair.<p>So startup idea is to use some sort of nuclear imaging technology that has no negative health effects to enhance shoe fitting and thus sales.

Stephen King&#x27;s <i>It</i> features one of these machines, in the 1958 part.<p>It&#x27;s a shame, really. I was thinking about these machines recently as I was trying to come up with a method to drill through a soft and opaque material -- how would you know you were properly centered? Gosh, one of these would be handy.

I remember having my shoe fit checked in the 50&#x27;s by one of these machines, at Morgan&#x27;s department store in Montreal.

There was an episode of American Restoration that featured a machine like this. They restored it (minus the X-ray part) with a stock X-ray picture so it would look like it still worked.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt2348752&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt2348752&#x2F;</a>

So what could we use as a solution nowadays? UWB radar?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ultra-wideband" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Ultra-wideband</a>

As a child, my mother would go to the shoe store and stare into these machines for hours, just for the entertainment value. Later in life, her feet were horribly deformed.

Many doctors stand for hours with their hands under the fluoroscope when working in the cath lab. It&#x27;s not that dangerous if they&#x27;re willing to do it.

Every time I read about such things I imagine what kind of things are we doing now that people 50-100 years from now will comment and laugh about.

Shoe-fitting fluoroscope... there’s a massive shoe store near where I grew up that still has at least one (not operational). Very cool antique.

Tangent. People are still getting conned when it comes to shoes. Custom designed soles, with padding in the &quot;right&quot; places based on the shape of your foot, in order to &quot;absorb impact&quot; or &quot;correct overpronation&quot;. Which is nonsense and unnecessary unless you have foot deformities. Your foot is perfectly capable of absorbing impact and whatnot. This is all marketing aimed at gullible new runners who want to go from couch to marathon without taking the time to learn proper running technique and without giving their bodies time to adapt to running. All the while ingraining and reinforcing bad running habits. But at least we&#x27;re no longer xraying people&#x27;s feet for no apparent reason, so that&#x27;s a start.