Hello, In that photo, during the time we were growing little kids, these shoe x-rays were around, especially in the popular store called Desmond’s Store in downtown Long Beach. Our dad was buying shoes from his friends store in Los Angeles, based on what shoes my brother and I were wearing at the time. He purchased them for us when the toes began to cramp into the pointed end. But, that store in Los Angeles was only shoe store with a good supply of quality shoes, but the in store stock was always good. When our dad heard and saw the x-ray machine in his favorite department store in downtown Long Beach, we all got a dose of early x-ray potion when we went shopping for new shoes. Growing kids, great fitting shoes and style was important for him and therefore, we had good fitting shoes based on the shoe salesman’s physical measurement on those metal sizing tools and of course. The new fangled x-ray machines. My brother and I were fascinated at seeing our toes move around while we were looking into the scope. We moved our feet forward and back to see if they were rubbing on the sides. Well, yes, we could have told the salesman the information about fit and finish, but this new tech told everyone concerned that the exact shoe showed the exact fit in the x ray screen. No one was worried about the x-ray exposure, since it was so little. But, the machines were powerful enough to cause damage with longer exposure. “…The machines generally employed a 50 KV X-ray tube operating at 3 to 8 milliamps. When you put your feet in a shoe fitting fluoroscope, you were effectively standing on top of the X-ray tube. The only “shielding” between your feet and the tube was a one mm thick aluminum filter. Some units allowed the operator to select one of three different intensities: the highest intensity for men, the middle one for women and the lowest for children. Most units also had a push button timer that could be set to a desired exposure time, e.g., 5 to 45 seconds. The most common setting was 20 seconds…” Jnaki We must have purchased new shoes almost every year for all of our activity and daily dress shoes. But, we spent most of our times in tennis shoes. Flexibility and feel selected the canvas tennis shoes for a good fit. But, the department store sports section for the name brand football/baseball cleats and styles were also used up into the teens. They had to fit just right to participate without any hinderances in fit and performance. So, the x-rays were used. But by the time we left high school, those machines were gone from the So Cal stores. YRMV Note: My brother put his hand in the slot and I got a good shot of his hand moving the fingers. Then we switched and as my brother was laughing, the assistant sales person came over and read us the “Riot Act.” But, our dad continued to bring us in for “perfectly fitting shoes” for all sorts of uses. What is a little radiation for two growing boys? Ha! Thanks, Dad…
Thank God they didn`t use any of this design. https://macsmotorcitygarage.com/video-road-testing-the-1946-cadillac-interceptor-prototype/
The Jalopy Journal
