Historical Thursday: X-Ray Shoe Fitting
Did you ever buy a pair of shoes and later realize that they just didn’t fit right? Have you ever imagined what your little toes look like getting shoved together like uncomfortable boyfriends at a Justin Bieber concert? Well hop in your time machine, set it to 1927 and your wish will come true. Because back in the day, shoe shopping wasn’t really shoe shopping unless you blasted your feet with some x-rays.
Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, also creepily known as pedoscopes, consisted of an x-ray emitting tube with a fluorescent screen above it. One would stick their feet into the gap between them in order to see a real-time image of what the shape of the shoe does to their bone structure. They would try on multiple shoes until they found one that both felt and looked the best. The three tubes on top were viewing pieces, used for the customer, the salesman, and whoever else wanted to have a gander.

The United States quickly fell in love with the machine, and most shoe stores from coast to coast began to market its use as a key selling point. They were used both to entice children into being less complainy during shopping trips, and also a way to add ‘science’ to the magic of shoe sales.

Pictures and Information courtesy of: Wisconsin History and Wikipedia.
"Memento mori"
(Me)
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