The object for February is the Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope.

Soon after German scientist William Roentgen discovered x-rays in 1895, the medical profession found uses for the phenomenon. X-rays could penetrate the human body and expose photographic film or phosphorescent screens to reveal dense objects, including bones. For the first time, doctors could examine the interior of the body without cutting.

Unfortunately, the dangers inherent in radiation were little understood. Slowly scientists realized that x-rays and other forms of radiation destroyed living tissue and caused slow, painful death. Even when the danger of gross overexposure were realized, researchers failed to understand that even mild exposures can lead to cancers and other health threats, long after initial exposures.

Beginning in the late 1920s and continuing through the 1950s, some 10,000 shoe-store fluoroscopes, like the one pictured here, provided a marketing ploy and a health risk - especially for the shoe-store employees who operated them. The concept was simple: a box with an x-ray source and fluoroscope screen was installed in the store. A customer, often a child, placed his or her feet in the box, and the x-rays penetrated shoes and feet to reveal the "fit" of the shoes to the child, a parent, and the salesperson, all of whom viewed the bones of the feet and outline of the shoes on a fluoroscope screen through the three viewing portals.

The gimmick perhaps helped increase sales, and it is doubtful that the buyers were harmed. But the unshielded radiation sources presented a real health hazard to unknowing sales people.

By 1970 the units had been banned outright in thirty-three states, and seventeen other states imposed standards that made operation virtually impossible. Still, as late as 1981 one machine was still in use.

Today, the few extant shoe-fitting fluoroscopes are in museum collections.

Additional Reading:
http://www.orau.com/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm