The Story of the Shoe Fitting Fluoroscope
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“Every parent will want to hear this important news! Now, at last, you can be certain that your children’s foot health is not being jeopardized by improper fitting shoes!”
This was the cry of a radio advertisement promoting the benefits of the shoe fitting fluoroscope. During its hey day in the 1930s to 1950s shoe fitting fluoroscopes could be found in any reputable shoe store in North America. The story of the machine’s creation remains foggy; however, the best claim belongs to Jacob Lowe, a Boston doctor. Dr. Lowe fashioned a machine to x-ray soldier’s feet, without the hassle of removing shoes during WWI. He later remarketed the same device to shoe retailers as a way to ensure the correct fit of shoes. Lowe does not hold a monopoly on creation stories for the machine, others exist from as far away as Britain, meaning that no one person can credibly be called its inventor.
The shoe fitting fluoroscope consisted of a platform, a wooden cabinet, and three viewing ports- one for the parent, the salesperson and the child- to observe the fluorescent image of the child’s bones inside the shoes. Because of this easy to use device “scientific” shoe fitting became all the rage.
Of course, the parents who were so diligently protecting their children in one way were needlessly jeopardizing their child's health in another way, by exposing them to high doses of radiation. In a shoe fitting fluoroscope, the user essentially stood atop a 50 kv x-ray tube, with a mere 1mm thick aluminum filter for protection. As the dangers of radiation became apparent exposure standards were set. The American Standards Association was one of the first to set limits and created a “safe standard or tolerance dose” of no more than 2 R per 5 seconds of exposure for feet. Governments followed suit after this standard was set in 1946. This movement to create standards spelled trouble for the machine, as measurements taken in the 1940’s showed that at least 60% of shoe fitting fluoroscopes exceeded the new safety standards. Thus, as we learned the dangers of exposure to x-rays throughout the 1950’s the shoe fitting fluoroscopes' popularity vanished almost overnight.
