A bit of x-ray radiation: how to choose shoes in the best shops of the past

A shopping trip in search of a suitable pair of shoes sometimes turns into a series of endless fitting. And if it comes to buying children's shoes, then there is a great risk of buying something that is not suitable in size, since children are not always able to assess the real parameters of the product being tried on. But in the middle of the last century, residents of some countries were spared from such unexpected surprises, since a device called a fluoroscope or pedoscope, which worked on the principle of an X-ray machine, was widely used in stores.

C. Carrer was the author of this device, which quickly gained popularity among shoe store owners in Europe and the USA. Despite the fact that the miracle device cost about $ 1,000, since the 1920s it has been in many shoe stores, whose owners kept up to date and sought to please their customers. After all, using the original device, it was possible to greatly simplify the search for a suitable pair of shoes, especially for young buyers.

But science and technological progress, which presented merchants with such a wonderful tool that boosts sales, developed rapidly. Scientists accumulated and systematized their knowledge of x-rays, which could see what was inaccessible to the human eye. And a couple of decades after the advent of the original new items, it became clear that a convenient device is not so safe for the health of buyers and sellers themselves, whose hands are regularly exposed to rays. Already in the middle of the last century, pedoscopes began to be treated with more caution, and their use for trying on children's shoes was limited in many countries. Of course, the owners of shoe stores were deeply saddened by this turn of events, but they had to come to terms with the fact that the appliances were ultimately banned completely. This device was used the longest in Canada and the UK, where the latest pedoscopes disappeared from shoe stores by 1970.