![Atop Empire State- in construction; Chrysler Bldg & [Daily] News in middle foreground. (1931)](http://2-www-accel-pss.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?container=accel&gadget=howtobearetronaut.com&debug=0&nocache=0&v=u8u7jnqbdijrtp344779jt5bjs&rooe=1&html_tag_context=img&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhowtobearetronaut.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F05%2FAtop-Empire-State-in-construction-Chrysler-Bldg-Daily-News-in-middle-foreground.-1931--199x123.jpg "Balancing on the Empire State, 1920s")
“Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, also known as 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. In the UK, they were known as Pedoscopes, after the company based in St. Albans that manufactured them.”
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Thank you to the Science Museum
My history professor was just talking about these today. Now they have those Dr.Scholls machines that you stand on to determine what type of insoles you should use.
I can remember using one of these in Scotland in the 70s when I was a child and watching the bones in my feet move as I wiggled my toes.
No one believes me about it these days as it sounds crazy to expose people to radiation in such a cavalier manner.
I certainly remember these; there was on in Clark’s shoeshop in Stroud during the 1950s and the boringness of buying school shoes was alleviated by being able to use these things. No one thought of the harm radiation could do; their concern was the harm that ill-fitting shoes could do to growing feet with soft developing bones and so forth. I am grateful for the fact that my feet are in pretty good condition all things considered!