Radiation was treated different back then, look at these choice anecdotes.
> [A patent radioactive medicine]’s most loyal customer was Eben Byers, well known in Pittsburgh society as a wealthy manufacturer, sportsman, and playboy, approaching fifty years of age. Byers continued to take Radithor more desperately each year as his health failed, until in 1931 he entered a hospital, feeble and emaciated, his very breath radioactive. He did not have time to develop cancer but died of direct radiation injury within a few months.
> This was the first proven case of death from a patent radioactive medicine ... The public was not easily convinced that radioactivity could be dangerous at all [...] Doctors of sound reputation continued to use heavy doses of radiation to treat not only serious ailments but also cosmetic problems like warts or excess facial hair. Some even offered men temporary birth control through X-ray sterilization. As late as 1940 many hospital and laboratory workers were casually exposing themselves to radiation at levels far above the official guidelines.
[...]
> During the 1950s X-rays were often used to kill unwanted body hair, thousands of fluoroscopes in shoe Stores across the United States and Europe showed people the bones in their children’s feet; some hospitals routinely X-rayed infants simply to please parents with an inside view of their offspring.
I think you could use visible light and photogrammetry for the same purpose. You might need to take your socks off, though. Or put on a pair of the disposable thin "try on" socks the stores have for people who don't wear socks of their own.
A possibly better solution would be to establish a standard for shoe measurements in 3D space, that could then be compared to a 3D image of the foot (taken with visible light). Cameras and computers are cheap these days.
Solves the fit problem quickly and avoids any X-Ray exposure.
No doubt, but now with CCDs they don't need to be near the operating machine. The machine could be in a lead lined booth with a video display outside it for the shoe store employee to watch.
Radiation was treated different back then, look at these choice anecdotes.
> [A patent radioactive medicine]’s most loyal customer was Eben Byers, well known in Pittsburgh society as a wealthy manufacturer, sportsman, and playboy, approaching fifty years of age. Byers continued to take Radithor more desperately each year as his health failed, until in 1931 he entered a hospital, feeble and emaciated, his very breath radioactive. He did not have time to develop cancer but died of direct radiation injury within a few months.
> This was the first proven case of death from a patent radioactive medicine ... The public was not easily convinced that radioactivity could be dangerous at all [...] Doctors of sound reputation continued to use heavy doses of radiation to treat not only serious ailments but also cosmetic problems like warts or excess facial hair. Some even offered men temporary birth control through X-ray sterilization. As late as 1940 many hospital and laboratory workers were casually exposing themselves to radiation at levels far above the official guidelines.
[...]
> During the 1950s X-rays were often used to kill unwanted body hair, thousands of fluoroscopes in shoe Stores across the United States and Europe showed people the bones in their children’s feet; some hospitals routinely X-rayed infants simply to please parents with an inside view of their offspring.
From "Nuclear Fear; a history of images"
A shoe-fitting fluoroscope! I’m only half-joking, but one using terahertz radiation would be very handy to have while shoe-shopping with children.
Kids can’t reliably tell you the fit of their shoes, and some footwear doesn’t yield to the “thumb-at-toe” test.
(1) https://spectrum.ieee.org/amp/when-xrays-were-all-the-rage-a...
I think you could use visible light and photogrammetry for the same purpose. You might need to take your socks off, though. Or put on a pair of the disposable thin "try on" socks the stores have for people who don't wear socks of their own.
An X-ray machine was in the shoe store when I was little, but my father told us not to let it be used on us.
Limbs are much less sensitive to ionizing radiation, though. It's not good to play with in any case, of course.
I wish we still had this. It could be done using far less power today, and besides, it's not like baby boomers are all getting foot cancer.
A possibly better solution would be to establish a standard for shoe measurements in 3D space, that could then be compared to a 3D image of the foot (taken with visible light). Cameras and computers are cheap these days.
Solves the fit problem quickly and avoids any X-Ray exposure.
Maybe.. but feet deform when standing in shoes and being able to see that effect seems very helpful.
I wonder if it’s more of an issue for the person giving the x-rays.
No doubt, but now with CCDs they don't need to be near the operating machine. The machine could be in a lead lined booth with a video display outside it for the shoe store employee to watch.
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