Shoe-fitting fluoroscope

Common card · No. 276578

The shoe-fitting fluoroscope, also sold under the names X-ray Shoe Fitter, Pedoscope and Foot-o-scope, was an X-ray fluoroscope machine installed in shoe stores from the 1920s until about the 1970s. The device was a metal construction covered in finished wood, approximately 4 feet (1.2 m) tall in the shape of short column, with a ledge with an opening through which the standing customer (adult or child) would put their feet and 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 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 machines were sold in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Germany and Switzerland. In the UK, they were known as Pedoscopes, after...

Read on Wikipedia · Image National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Public domain