Who would have thought: a pedoscope

In the 1920s, stock wooden lockers began to appear in American shoe stores – SHOE-FITTING FLUOROSCOPE. The principle of work was simple: inserting the leg into the bottom compartment, the potential buyer through a special tube saw how tightly the shoe is sitting on the foot. The device shouted to the foot through, so it was possible to see each bone and the contour of the sole.

This is how Vladimir Nabokov describes in the "gift": "A miracle entered the leg, but, by going, completely blinded: the movement of the fingers inside did not reflect on the external smooth surface of the close black leather. The saleswoman with a phenomenal speed knocked the ends of the lace – and touched the sock shoe with two fingers. "Just! – she said. – New always a little. – she continued hastily, riding brown eyes. – Of course, if you want, you can put Kosovo under the heel. But they – just, see for yourself!" And she led him to the x-ray, showed where to put the leg. Looking in the window down, he saw his own on light background, dark, neatly-separate lying jointers ".

The device began literally seize shoe stores of North America and Europe. In England, he was called Pedoscope, in Germany – Shucoskop. Invented the pedoscope (he is a fluoroscope) merchant surgical instruments from Milwaukee Clarence Carrer in 1924, after 29 years after William X-rays opened the rays, named afterwards in his honor. The price of the "shoe locker" with an x-ray varied from $ 800 to $ 1000. Despite the high cost, each store owner sought to get a status novelty. Peak popularity came on the years of the Great Depression: People sought to choose shoes with the mind so that she could be worn not one season. The owners of the Pedoscope owners were wonderful, while in the late 1940s, scientists did not speak about how bad these devices are harmful.