In a previous post, we saw Mary
(Patrick) Culbert (wife of Milward Taylor "Mel" Culbert) walking past the Rowland Hill's Shoe Store in London, Ontario in
1945 with her three-year-old son, Terrence Patrick "Terry" Culbert and her baby daughter, Dana Elizabeth Culbert.
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| Mary (Patrick) Culbert with son Terry Culbert and daughter,
Dana Culbert (in pram) walking by Rowland Hill's Shoe Store on Dundas Street in London, Ontario, 1945. |
Terry was probably hoping to drag
his mother into the shoe store. Why? So that he could x-ray his feet!
Inside Rowland Hill's Shoe Store was a device
known as a fluoroscope or a pedoscope.
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Advertisement for Rowland Hill's Shoe Store's X-ray shoe fitting equipment, i.e. fluoroscope. Source: London Free Press, 31 October 1935.
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Terry Culbert says, “It was a
thrill to use that machine! You could look through the viewer and see the bones
of your feet!” His sister, Dana (Culbert) Garrett remembers that “it was the highlight of
every shopping trip!”
Fluoroscopes began popping up in
shoe stores in Canada and the United States during the 1920s. Purported to be a
shoe-fitting aid, their popularity lasted for decades.
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X-Ray Shoes sign at a store in St. Petersburg, Florida, 1930s. The bench also says X-Ray Shoes.
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| Fluoroscope frenzy, 1920s. |
As a child in the 1960s, I shared
Terry and Dana’s excitement at using that marvel of a machine. I couldn’t wait
to run into Rowland Hill’s Shoe Store and slide my feet into the fluoroscope.
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1940s Fluoroscope demonstration.
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In 1999, Time magazine described
the fluoroscope as one of “The Worst Ideas of the Century” but to
children, it was a miracle machine.The fluoroscope stood at about 4 ½ feet high. An x-ray
device was concealed within the fluoroscope.
How did it work? First, you tried on a new pair of
shoes. Then, you slid your feet into the two slots at the base of the
fluoroscope. Next, you peered into one of three viewers at the top of the
fluoroscope. You then set a timer, and looked at the image of your feet on a
screen. You could clearly see the bones of your feet, glowing green!
If you wiggled your toes, you could see your bones
move. It was like watching a dancing skeleton.
As mentioned, the fluoroscope had three viewers at the
top. Up to three different people could look at the bones of your feet at the
same time. For example, a child could observe the bones of their feet through
one viewer while their mother and the salesperson looked through the other two
viewers.
The salesperson claimed to be able to see if the shoes
fit you properly by looking through the viewer at your bones. However, the
proper fit of a shoe is based on the soft tissues of the foot, not the bones. Undoubtedly,
the fluoroscope was more of a sales gimmick than a tool.
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| A section from a shoe salesperson’s fitting card. |
According to an article in the University of Chicago’s
The History of Social Science, “the shoe-fitting fluoroscope was
nothing more or less than an elaborate form of advertising designed to sell
shoes.”
Not only was the fluoroscope a gimmick, it was a
health hazard. Fluoroscopes produced and leaked radiation. Not just a little
radiation; A LOT OF RADIATION. The fluoroscope delivered a radiation dose of 13
roentgen. This wasn’t particularly harmful if you only used the machine once or
twice a year. However, these were dangerous levels of radiation if you were a
fluoroscope enthusiast like me and my siblings, Terry and Dana or if you were a
shoe salesperson who was constantly in close proximity to the machines.
By the 1960s, fluoroscopes were banned in the United
States but their use carried on in Canada until 1970.
Fluoroscopes were all the rage with children. Children
are much more radiosensitive than adults yet kids begged their mothers to use
the shoe store’s fluoroscope. After all, what kid wouldn’t want to see their
skeletal feet glowing green?
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This photo reminds me of my childhood fervor for the fluoroscope. [photo via]
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| Seriously? |
Fluoroscopes were fun but dangerous. There are records
of shoe salespersons and customers who suffered radiation burns and foot
cancer. Fortunately, Terry and Dana and I (and maybe some of you) have
managed to make it this far in life without any known side effects.
Time magazine
really did make a good point when they described the fluoroscope as one
of “The Worst Ideas of the Century.”
