OT Anybody remember these?

[harryagain]

[Caecilius]

Yes, just. I saw one when I was a kid in the 1960s, but my parents wouldn'tlet me use it because they thought/knew it was dangerous.

[Roger Mills]

No.

[Chris Hogg]

Ditto, but 1950's for me. Father was a local GP, so was aware of the potential hazards.

[Chris French]

Me neither, but I suspect by the time I was old enough to have noticed and remembered if I had seen one they had probably mostly gone (7 in

1970)

[Graham.]

Yes there was one at our local shoe shop but I don't recall if it was used on me. However it does seem unlikely that I would remember it, and what it was for if it wasn't used on me. I don't recall seeing my skeletal feet, but looking at the height of the viewers that would be impossible for a small child. (dob 1953)

[Chris J Dixon]

Indeed so. I remember using one at least once, but couldn't really make out the image properly myself.

Chris

[polygonum]

That was my mother's opinion. However, with hindsight, had someone looked properly at my feet then, something might have been done to avoid the odd things at the ends of my legs they became. And I might have been able to get footwear that fitted - which I can only achieve even now by accepting considerable compromise.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Same here - Jacksons in Reading had one in their shoe department. With my dad being an atomic physicist specialising in X-ray spectroscopy, I wasn't allowed anywhere near it!

[Adrian]

I'm sure I vaguely recall using one of these as a little 'un - dob 1971, so probably around '75-6ish? But surely I can't have...?

I definitely recall their replacement, the machine you put your foot in and metal bars came out to nudge your toes gently.

[spuorgelgoog]

The local museum has one from a local shoe shop.

I don't know how thoroughly they decomissioned it ...

Owain

[philipuk]

It's an x-ray machine, so as long as it isn't plugged in it should be safe. It's not like there is a lump of radioactive material in it like in smoke alarms or luminous dials.

I very much doubt the high voltage insulation has withstood the test of time, nor the vacuum in the x-ray tube. Would be very dangerous to find out!

Philip

[rbel]

The only time I encountered one of these was at the Royal Garden hotel in London where the security team used one to check packages during the IRA bombings in the 1970/80s.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Gabriel has brought this to us :

Yes, Lewis's in Leeds had one 1950's..

[Michael Chare]

Yes, not quite the same. I was not aware of the dangers at the time.

[Bill Wright]

Sounds vaguely reminiscent of the chocolate speciality called 'spring surprise'.

Bill

[Bert Coules]

Clark's shoe shops made a big thing of these in the late fifties and early sixties. They were featured in their TV ads, as I recall.

Growing up, I used the one in the local shop many times. I recall it as being rather more elegant, curvy and early-science-fictiony than the ones in the link, and I can remember looking into the viewer and seeing the scans, so either I was unusually tall (which come to think of it, I was) or the viewer was set low enough for me to get to.

Never did me any harm...

[Gazz]

he says as he types the reply using his 25 finger like toes on each foot :)

[Clive George]

You or your 12 toes? :-)

[Mike Clarke]

I remember them - probably late 1940's to early 1950's. I certainly remember seeing the bones in my toes as a child. Perhaps machines for children's departments had the front viewing window lower down than the 2 on the sides.