When X-Rays Were a Toy: The Shoe-Store Machines and the Long, Slow Dawn of Radiation Safety
In thousands of shoe stores, children once leaned over a wooden cabinet and watched the bones of their own feet wiggle in an eerie green glow. It was a marvel, a sales gimmick, and a slow-dripping dose of radiation all at once. This is the story of the decades it took the world to learn that its favorite miracle could hurt.