Another "Tell me I am not dreaming" item

I seem to remember going with my mum when I was a kid to the old Cole Bros store on Church Street. My aunt worked in the shoe department . In there was a machine which you stood on and if you looked into a viewer you could see the skeleton of your feet.

I am sure this was in the kids section and used as a crafty way of getting kids to stand still while their feet were measured for the Clarks shoes - in fact I think it was a Clarks machine.

Obviously at that time (late 1950's) the potential dangers of X rays were not too widely known.

Or am I imagining the whole thing?

I guess this is one for the +50 year olds

Was it just a picture of somebody else's feet? Would you be able to tell?

Strix - we are talking 45+ years ago - I cannot remember - but if it were a fake - they went to a lot of trouble - it was quite a large contraption - rather like a wooden version of the scales you used to see in Boots etc. - but instead of the dial there was a small viewing screen.

Don't know about Coles but there was certainly one in the shoe shop further up on the same side. I think it was Clark's shop. Used to get my childrens' shoes there and their feet were ex-rayed, The machine didn't seem to be there long.
Bought them Starteright shoes at first Then went on to Clerks, then they decided on Doc Martins.

Hazel

Hazel

Thank you thank you thank you.

I was telling my mates about this the other day and none o fthem believed me

I am talking about 35+ yrs ago. Would that be about right?
Hazel

hazel - time is flying faster than we think - originall I though about 35 years but then realised it is now 2005 - the old coles closed in 63 so it is at least 40 years ago .

They may have kept the machine in the Clarks Shop in Fargate for longer then the Coles one - I am guessing that would have been Peter Lords -so it could have been 35+ years ago

The important thing is that you remember the device - I was at the point where I was thinking I had imagined it

My eldest chld is 42 and I had their feet measured frrom the start so you are probably right.
Hazel

I worked on the Shoe depatrment at the new Cole Bros from 1967 to 1970 and there wasn't an x-ray machine there then !

docmel,
I to remember the machines. The one I remember was in a shoe shop at the bottom of the moor. If I remember right it had a recess at the bottom where you placed your feet and a viewer on the top, but I never got to use it, thankfully.

Read below. (This is an American version)

Count yourself lucky. The nation's 10,000 shoe store fluoroscopes were notoriously poorly regulated during their heyday in the 40s and 50s. The U.S. Public Health Service said the average device emitted between 7 and 14 roentgens per dose, but one study found that some machines emitted as much as 116 roentgens. (For comparison, a person standing within 1500 meters of ground zero at Hiroshima got hit with more than 300 roentgens--admittedly throughout their entire bodies, not just their feet.) There is a predictable relationship between X ray exposure and excess cancer deaths. So we can safely say that some people died ahead of their time due to what was basically a sales gimmick.

Theres a picture here of a similar device.

http://www.mtn.org/quack/devices/shoexray.htm

pietro

You described it perfectly - and the reason why they were withdrawn was as I suspected.

I never saw the machine in Cole Bros. but was taken for a new pair of shoes when we were in London c 1950 and used one of the xray machines there.

Now this brings back memories !!!

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm

Originally posted by docmel
Now this brings back memories !!!

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm


I wouldn't be able to get MY big toe in there let alone my feet!

I remember the foot x-ray machine, not particularly in Coles but in a shoe shop on Fargate. My ex-husband, a US citizen, remembers seeing the machines in NY in the early 50s. We were just discussing them last week and how we didn't realise how dangerous they were at the time.

I think just up untill 15-20 years ago many children had their shoes "fitted" sometime before the big malls opened, although I don't remember the machines in Coles but I know they were famous for their Clarks shoes, I use to walk around just to smell the leather shoes and gloves, you could always see posh people trying on the leather driving gloves.

Ah! yes I remember them well!!!

I don't remember the x-ray machine but I do recall n electric foot measuring machine in Peter Lords on Fargate. It was a platform that you stood on and put your foot into a hole whereupon the lady pressed a button and silver blocks slid out between toe and heel then two more to measure the width. Oddly I can't find any images of it on the net.

I don't remember the x-ray machine but I do recall n electric foot measuring machine in Peter Lords on Fargate. It was a platform that you stood on and put your foot into a hole whereupon the lady pressed a button and silver blocks slid out between toe and heel then two more to measure the width. Oddly I can't find any images of it on the net.

That's the foot-measuring device that I remember, Tony.

That's the foot-measuring device that I remember, Tony.

I used to work at Peter Lords in the early '70's and remember that machine very well.

It was a baptism of fire when new people started with us to go down to the basement, where the kids department was, on a Saturday, and measure a bunch of kids feet, especially when it was the last thing in the world they wanted to be doing!...talk about 'Some Mothers do 'av 'em' !!

All that being said - very happy memories and met the girl of my dreams while I was there.....pity she buggered off with my best mate about a year later!!

I worked on the Shoe depatrment at the new Cole Bros from 1967 to 1970 and there wasn't an x-ray machine there then !

Correct, it was in the Clarks shop at the corner of High St and Angel St, definate put your house on it.