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When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

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Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#91

Post by outworlder »

Causality1 wrote: post #89
gxqoz wrote: post #75

A related phenomenon was x-ray salons, "the most scientific way to remove hair." Hundreds of these cropped up in the early 20th century, originally growing out of their use in the medical profession. Most targeted working class, immigrant women to the US. They were eventually banned but persisted underground for quite some time. There's a good history of them in Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. https://books.googl…

Those machines were terrible but you have to be a little wistful for the days when the American public actually liked science and liked products associated with it.

One could argue that the disdain for science today could also be related to this kind of thing.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#92

Post by joezydeco »

deepspace wrote: post #74
joezydeco wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad worked in a shoe store when he was in high school. His friends would goof around with the machine during slow periods. Thankfully my dad stayed away from the thing. Many lost feet or parts of them, never making a connection back to the fluoroscope. Nobody knew how much radiation those things were actually putting out. (Ironically or not, I now work in medical physics where even the slightest exposure gets note…

Wait a minute - so you are saying that having parts of your foot fall off was just considered part of the normal high school experience? Does not sound right to me - surely a rash of radiation burns among teenagers would have been noticed, even in those days.

Some developed problems years down the road, this wasn't a Demon Core-class exposure situation.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#93

Post by ggm »

lostlogin wrote: post #81
andybak wrote: post #6

I'm 49 and I'm sure I remember there still being machines in stores when I was 7 or 8. Is that possible? I don't recall them actually in use - but they were visibly present. (I'm in the UK) EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope#Regul... Looks possible.

My father is approximately 60 and has told me about messing with these things as a kid in Edinburgh.

I am approximately 60 and as a child, I used one of these in south clerk st, Edinburgh when I bought shoes.

I am not your father.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#94

Post by mordechai9000 »

Analemma_ wrote: post #69
mordechai9000 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you could build a 3d model with photogrammetry. There's not that much soft tissue and it's not like you're going to ignore it, anyway. Retool the manufacturing so custom shoes roll off the line with modern materials and design. I'd pay a premium for hiking boots custom made for my feet, and I bet a lot of other people would, too. Or any athletic footwear. People are already paying whatever they can afford. Of…

This is already a thing: my usual running shoe store went out of business because of Covid, and the new one I went to has a machine that scans your feet and builds a 3D model. Like flouroscopy, I suspect it's mostly a gimmick: the shoes I ended up getting there are fine but don't seem to be appreciably better than the ones I would get at the store which measured my feet the old-fashioned way.

My feet are pretty nonstandard. It's hard to find footwear that actually fits well, especially heavier mountaineering and hiking boots. This is something I've been wanting for a long time.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#95

Post by bigbubba »

kube-system wrote: post #90
bigbubba wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about expectations. I am talking about the price of medical imaging, not the price of the analysis of medical imaging. It is my impression that a clear distinction between these matters can and frequently is made.

The price of being imaged with one of these: https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MzcwNzM3OQ.jpeg Was cheaper than being imaged today with one of these: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Xr... Because the first one was a hack put together before we knew how bad it was. The second one is a high quality unit, with high safety standards, and regulatory compliance. The first one has none of those featu…

Yes I think this is [part of] the answer, not the cost of radiologists.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#96

Post by noneeeed »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #54
andybak wrote: post #6

I'm 49 and I'm sure I remember there still being machines in stores when I was 7 or 8. Is that possible? I don't recall them actually in use - but they were visibly present. (I'm in the UK) EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope#Regul... Looks possible.

I wonder if you and/or others might be confusing the x-ray machines with the mechanical foot measuring machines. I'm middle aged and remember Clarks (probably in Sheffield, UK) having what looked like a crushing machine with steel plates that closed - very gently - on to the feet and gave a read out of size and width. (See image at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32738088#_=_ under "Appropriate measures", left ha…

So glad I'm not the only one :) there was something weirdly nice about having your foot in one of those machines. Perhaps it was just the effect of going from a hot, probably somewhat uncomfortable show, to the cold metal and freedom.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#97

Post by kube-system »

bigbubba wrote: post #95
kube-system wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price of being imaged with one of these: https://spectrum.ieee.org/image/MzcwNzM3OQ.jpeg Was cheaper than being imaged today with one of these: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Xr... Because the first one was a hack put together before we knew how bad it was. The second one is a high quality unit, with high safety standards, and regulatory compliance. The first one has none of those featu…

Yes I think this is [part of] the answer, not the cost of radiologists.

The radiologic technician's (aka radiographer) labor would also be part of the cost of the imaging. I suppose this is probably the job title the above comment was looking for.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#98

Post by ChuckMcM »

I found one of these units at an antique store in Maine, sadly the x-ray tube had been removed. Really nice cabinetry though and I thought this would make an awesome steampunk type accent to a workspace at some point.

And while this particular idea had its flaws, the idea of looking at a foot inside a shoe is fundamentally a good one in my opinion. Feet are pretty variable between people and the difference between having the right shoe and the wrong shoe is a good differentiator. I didn't appreciate how much until I got a pair of hiking boots (Asolo) that actually fit my particularly shaped foot. My father-in-law had custom shoes made for him on Hong Kong in the 60's and would send them a check when ever he wanted a new pair.

So startup idea is to use some sort of nuclear imaging technology that has no negative health effects to enhance shoe fitting and thus sales.

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#99

Post by technofiend »

The early 20th century had an odd fascination with all things radioactive. I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article entitled "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off" [1]. I can't find a WSJ reprint, but there are online copies available by searching the headline or a CNN article mentions it. [2]

Apparently Mr. Byers the maker and an avid drinker of the cola had to be buried in a lead-lined coffin. According to The New York Times [3], Mr. Byers' death triggered action from the FDA and brought an end to radioactive patent medicines.

From the CNN article:

Evans was an expert at measuring and mathematically modeling the human body's uptake and excretion of radioactivity. Based on Byers' self-reported RadiThor consumption, Evans' model had predicted that Byers' body would contain about 100,000 becquerel of radioactivity. ("Becquerel" is an international unit of radioactivity.) What he found was that Byers' skeletal remains actually had a total of 225,000 becquerel, suggesting that either Evans' model of radiation uptake was underestimating radium's affinity for bone, or alternatively, that Byers had actually understated his personal RadiThor consumption by a factor of at least two. It was not possible to determine which alternative accounted for the discrepancy.

For the sake of comparison, some water from the Fukushima disaster reads 200,000 becquerel, although different isotopes are involved and exposure limits vary by isotope, Mr. Byers was well beyond a reasonable limit by any measure. [4]

[1] http://lateralscience.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-radium-water-...

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/10/health/energy-drinks-radioact...

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1932/04/02/archives/death-stirs-acti...

[4] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/water-6-700-times-more-ra...

Re: When X-Rays were used at the Shoe Store

#100

Post by theophrastus »

My 89 year old mother loves to tell the story of her brother and friends spending several hours getting whatever body part they could push through the shoe slot below to be reported on how it looks by another child looking through the scope at the top. They were very disappointed that my uncle's head couldn't fit so they could examine his brain, (which they always figured had some bats in it)
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