overall: 97.5 cm x 61.5 cm x 95 cm; 38 3/8 in x 24 3/16 in x 37 3/8 in
overall: 54 in x 32 in x 77 in; 137.16 cm x 81.28 cm x 195.58 cm
Object Name:
Fluoroscope
x-ray machine, fluoroscope
Associated place:
United States: Ohio, Dayton
Date made:
1945 - 1959
Associated dates:
1987 12 11 / 1987 12 11
Description:
William Roentgen discovered X-rays in November 1895, and by February 1896 the rush was on to develop fluoroscopes for seeing objects on and inside human and animal bodies. Dr. Jacob J. Lowe, managing director of the Boston Dental X-Ray Laboratory, filed a patent application for a shoe fluoroscope in 1919 and demonstrated examples at shoe retailer conventions soon thereafter. Lowe received his patent in 1927 and assigned the rights to the Adrian Corp., a Milwaukee firm that had begun making machines of this sort in 1922. An inscription on the front of this example reads “Adrian Special / M. B. ADRIAN AND SONS X-RAY COMPANY / MILWAUKEE, WIS.”
Ref: J. J. Lowe, “Method and Means for Visually Determining the Fit of Footwear,” U.S. Patent 1,614,988 (Jan. 18, 1927), assigned to The Adrian Corp. Inc., of Milwaukee.
Jacalyn Duffin and Charles R. R. Hayter, “Baring the Sole: The Rise and Fall of the Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope,” <i>ISIS</i> 91 (2000): 260-282.
