46 Comments Posted by Jake

is there a tour or do u have to get in yourself

Its not connected to the tunnels, iv been more times then i can count and i have pictures of not only ghost but a demon dog smiling into one of are group photos. However the tunnels are usually not flooded and are always walkable so long as you wear crappy shoes but once you enter the adult bulding the basement is flooded a good 6in (thats where you need crappy shoes) but all the times iv been its always been an adventure where i leave with a story for each visit. Just be carful if you ever visit because it is very unstable in some spots and there is a lot of broken glass and debris you dont want to fall on.

Matthew is very close. This fluoroscope is incomplete. The vertical panel is just to cover the mechanics (shown two photos ahead). The mechanics in back, including the x-ray tube and its housing, could be moved up or down. An arm running around the side held a rectangular frame containing the fluorescent screen which, when moved up or down, would move the x-ray unit as well. The patient stood between the panel shown and the (much smaller) screen. The entire front assembly with the screen has been removed. The screen had a sheet of lead glass in front, so that the rays didn't continue on through to the doctor. The frame usually had a handle at each end so the doctor could grasp it in both hands to slide it up or down.

Later units of this type added lead protectors behind the handles on each side, and later still, a flexible lead apron hanging below the screen; the doctor's head was typically at screen level, but these prevented his body and hands from getting exposed. Some added a stiff lead sheet above the screen. A few very late units were built after the fashion of a telephone booth, entirely lined with lead, with a tall, narrow lead-fronted screen, and required the patient to stand inside; in some cases, they'd be mounted into the wall, so that the patient entered the booth from the hallway and the doctor entered an adjacent darkened room set aside for viewing.

Some units like this one were dedicated to fluoroscopy. Others were dual-purpose units; the vertical panel could be tilted diagonally or laid horizontally, for fluoroscopy, or with the screen moved and the x-ray unit swung above the table surface, film cassettes could be inserted into the table for taking radiographs.

The screens glowed an eerie neon green color. The machines weren't always low-dose devices. Many clinics had one, and some doctors would fluoroscope a patient at every check-up. There were also the infamous shoe store fitting devices using this tech, some of which had pitifully small amounts of lead, or even none at all-- not terrible for the kid who bought shoes once a year, much more so for the shoe salesman! These usually had three viewing ports, for the kid, a parent, and the salesman, and he often operated the machine, so he got exposed countless times a day.

Pretty much all direct-view fluoroscopes were being phased out by the mid-1960s, replaced first by recording using film, then by image intensifiers which allowed the machines to run at much lower levels and let the doctor view the image remotely via TV, picked up by a camera aimed at the image-intensified screen. I know of one clinic which used an upright fluoroscope like this into the 1990s; a West Virginia shoe store used a fluoroscopic shoe fitter into the early 1980s. Some Chinese manufacturers of x-ray equipment still offer units with direct-view screens, though I have no idea who buys them!

I have a strap like that in my Lacrosse helmet

beautiful all the pics on the ws are amazing!

Is that the Corcoran?

Wow, that's an interesting story, D!

Oh, I forgot to ask in my other comment, what was your F stop in this shot?

Woah, NICE shot, Motts!

I'm in just awe in this whole set, Man! Really nice job as usual!

Loving this shot, man!

Nice Macro shot!

Excellent shot!

Nice shot, man!

Nice shot, Motts!