I remember in the early 1950's staring down at a X-Ray of my feet wearing a new pair of shoes in one of theses with the salesman (person) and my mother looking through the ports to make sure my shoes fitted, it is a Adrian shoe fitting fluoroscope, not a good idea to keep giving X-Rays as we know today, but ignorance was bliss in those days,
but by the early 1950s, a number of professional organizations had issued warnings about the continued use of shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, naturally in the UK they remained in use for a few years later, there were no reported injuries to shoe store customers,
unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the operators of these machines, many shoe salesperson's put their hands into the x-ray beam to squeeze the shoe during the fitting, one of the more serious injuries linked to the operation of these machines involved a shoe model who received such a serious radiation burn that her leg had to be amputated (Bavley 1950), if like me you find all of this a bit bizarre than where better to look for more strange bits of medical kit than the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, great fun if you have a few moments to kill.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
A Free Beer To The First Of My Friends That Know What This Is Below And Has Used One!
(without reading about it first!)
I remember in the early 1950's staring down at a X-Ray of my feet wearing a new pair of shoes in one of theses with the salesman (person) and my mother looking through the ports to make sure my shoes fitted, it is a Adrian shoe fitting fluoroscope, not a good idea to keep giving X-Rays as we know today, but ignorance was bliss in those days,
but by the early 1950s, a number of professional organizations had issued warnings about the continued use of shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, naturally in the UK they remained in use for a few years later, there were no reported injuries to shoe store customers,
unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the operators of these machines, many shoe salesperson's put their hands into the x-ray beam to squeeze the shoe during the fitting, one of the more serious injuries linked to the operation of these machines involved a shoe model who received such a serious radiation burn that her leg had to be amputated (Bavley 1950), if like me you find all of this a bit bizarre than where better to look for more strange bits of medical kit than the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, great fun if you have a few moments to kill.
I remember in the early 1950's staring down at a X-Ray of my feet wearing a new pair of shoes in one of theses with the salesman (person) and my mother looking through the ports to make sure my shoes fitted, it is a Adrian shoe fitting fluoroscope, not a good idea to keep giving X-Rays as we know today, but ignorance was bliss in those days,
but by the early 1950s, a number of professional organizations had issued warnings about the continued use of shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, naturally in the UK they remained in use for a few years later, there were no reported injuries to shoe store customers,
unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the operators of these machines, many shoe salesperson's put their hands into the x-ray beam to squeeze the shoe during the fitting, one of the more serious injuries linked to the operation of these machines involved a shoe model who received such a serious radiation burn that her leg had to be amputated (Bavley 1950), if like me you find all of this a bit bizarre than where better to look for more strange bits of medical kit than the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, great fun if you have a few moments to kill.
Stan, I used to have to use one of these in the shoe department of the Bon Marche Store in Brixton. I was born with deformed feet and my shoes had to be modified and then checked for fit in one of these machines; until I was about 8 years old.
ReplyDeleteDear CeeJay, it is frightening how much we did not know in those days, a number of 'quack' cures being amongst them, in the 60’s one of my suppliers always had his brother with him on his rounds, he was addicted to Dr, Johnson's chlordine, harmless in it's self but highly additive, you were supposed to have two or three drops in a glass of water, he was drinking 10 – 20 bottles a day! but in those days who knew? best regards, Stan and Diana.
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