Nostalgia thread: Anybody remember 'Pedoscopes' used in shoe stores?

[trof]

I remember using these.
Wonder why I don't have foot cancer?



"Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, also Pedoscopes, were X-ray fluoroscope machines installed in shoe stores from the 1920s until about the 1960s in the United States (by which time they were prohibited), and into the mid-1970s in the United Kingdom.

A fluoroscope was a metal construction covered in timber approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) high in the shape of short column, with a ledge with an opening where the child (or the adult customer) would then place his or her feet in the opening provided and while remaining in a standing position, look through a viewing porthole at the top of the fluoroscope down at the x-ray view of the feet and shoes. Two other viewing portholes on either side enabled the parent and a sales assistant to observe the child's toes being wiggled to show how much room for the toes there was inside the shoe. The bones of the feet were clearly visible, as was the outline of the shoe, including the stitching around the edges. The exposure time would have been around 15 seconds.

Exposure from typical machines ranged from 12 to 107 R per minute (0.1 to 1 Gy per minute).
At the peak of the device's popularity in the early 1950s, about 10,000 machines were in use. In 1949, the danger of the fluoroscope was revealed and the machines in the United States were quietly phased out during the 1950s."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope

[zbdent]

1. no ... but your subject line made me think it was something to do with

the Catholic Church ...

[trof]

2. Right, they could sure use a Pedoscope.

Scope out those pedophiles.

[zbdent]

3. I thought it was to see under

the robes of the altar boys ...

[LibinMo]

4. I remember using these too

They were in several shoe stores we frequented. My mother thought they were great.

No foot cancer, but I have a large bunion!

[Peregrine Took]

5. My dear mom always told me "take care of your feet!"

Every year I got two new pair of shoes. A laces type oxford for school and a strappy sandal for summer. She and the salesman always looked thru the "scope" to be sure they fit properly.

Why didn't someone tell me that all those experiences would seem so precious to me when I got old?

[Paper Roses]

6. I sure do remember these machines. Every visit to the shoe store, you had to use it.

The salesman would give some kind of sales pitch and out I came with new shoes.

Makes me wonder.
I have Morton's Meuroma's in both feet, and in addition, my right foot has a nasty bunion and hammer toe.
Hurts like the devil all the time and I wear orthotics with extremely soft sole to help soften my step.

I wish this happened years ago when I had good insurance, I'd have had it corrected. Now It will have to wait until I can't walk. My Medicare Supplement hardly covers anything.

At least I can now blame the machine, true or not.!

[LibinMo]

7. I have custom orthotics to help with foot pain

This winter I tried a pair of Kalso Earth shoes with negative footbeds. They help a lot more than the orthotics. I think it's because my weight is shifted from the front of my feet to my heels. Medicare didn't pay for the orthotics so I had to come up with $400. The shoes only cost $60.

[Worried senior]

8. I loved these

thought it was the neatest thing to see my toes thru those machines.

[RebelOne]

9. Yes, as a child, my mother would always

stick my feet into one of those machines before buying my shoes.

[RC]

10. I remember those.

My sister died of leukemia when she was 21 and the cause was attributed to a Pedoscopes machine. Cancer does not run in our family.

I remember looking at my own feet, with the same machine, wearing new shoes.

[Lugnut]

11. I thought it was pretty cool to see bones in my shoes.

My feet were in those things every time I got shoes in the one store my mother shopped at. I wore Buster Browns until I was too old for them. Other than arthritis and an ingrown toenail my feet are fine at this point.

[shoeman]

12. Spam deleted by OKNancy (MIR Team)

[JDPriestly]

13. Used them, but not often.

I have wondered about the frequent x-rays I had when I had braces in the 1950s. I don't know how careful the dentist was. So far I'm fine, but who knows? I had a lot of x-rays around then.

Doctors used to smoke during consultations. We have progressed in some areas. And I'm grateful for that.

[RKP5637]

14. Yep, I sure remember using those, and I always thought it was sooo cool to

wiggle ones toes and see them wiggle in the Pedoscope. I can remember the green bony image like it was yesterday, just stuck in my mind.

[MrYikes]

15. It is good to be poor

only the expensive store in town had the machine. We couldn't afford to shop there.

[trof]

16. So...No foot cancer for you!

YEA!

[murphyj87]

17. Because Canada is a world leader in nuclear medicine...

I have never seen such a machine in Canada (radiation treatment for cancer - in 1951, the year I was born- is a Canadian development to mention just one). Of course I'm only 60, so it may be before my time when they were banned here.