7 Comments Posted by PseudoAnonymousCoward

Devin -- Oddly enough, Dymo still makes and sells plastic-embossing label makers! Not as much a choice of styles and colors, but they indeed exist.

Yea, shame to see such a nice floor go to waste.

(Confession, when I bowl, most of my balls end up there, in the gutter. haha)

Regardless of my sermon above, these are GREAT photos. I LOVE abandoned buildings, but there are not that many in my area these days.
Plus I'm an Old Ph*rt. lol

I think one reason many pieces of pre-1970's X-Ray gear is left behind is that the insulating oil in the power supplies contained PCB's. Cheaper to just leave it in place that pay for disposal. A typical large diagnostic machine may have as much as ten gallons or even more. The transformers in the power supply were usually mounted in oil-filled containers -- the oil provided both cooling and helped the electrical properties of the units.

As for X-ray gear containing radioactive material, it's extremely unlikely.
"Radioactive" is more of a scare word these days, as science is taught less and less in our schools. Yes, the machines *produce* radiation, but only when powered on. Elements like radium, thallium, americium, etc continually produce radiation as they decay, as that is their nature.

All this doesn't make X-ray equipment safe - far from it. There is a maximum lifetime (and short period) cumulative dosage of X-rays just as there is for any other ionizing radiation. That's why the radiological tech is behind leaded glass and a shielded wall. A patient on the table may just receive a small dose, but the tech may "shoot" hundreds of patients per day. - so it may take many years for a patient to receive what OSHA, AMA, ACR, DOE, XYZPDQ (lol) and other groups call a "lifetime cumulative dose" it would be possible for the poor rad tech to get the equivalent dose in days or weeks, depending on the number of patients and type of equipment used, were there no shielded enclosure for them.

Same goes for any application of radiation in a clinical or industrial environment.

Just sayin' in case some of you'uns out there weren't knowledgeable on the subject. (Retired electrical engineer, certified radiac tech, mad scientist and general know it all. heehee )

errrr.... *the* rather than *thee* LOL

Maybe the Lonely Ventilator eventually teamed up with thee Brave Little Toaster and the Cowardly Defibrillator and went on an adventure... heehee

floor-to-ceiling tile is very common in medical buildings. As a kid growing up in the 70's I spent a lot of time in regular hospitals due to various genetic illnesses, and most of the older hospitals in my area had tile floors and walls, except for the patient rooms which had something similar to vinyl tiling on the floors and the wall tiling went only half way up the wall, the rest was plaster. Most of the tile patterns were in interesting designs - one ER had an interesting Sea Foam and Dark Green Pattern, with the rooms in black and white patters of various types. Researching later on, I found that one architectural firm did most of the design work for the hospitals and medical annexes in that particular rural area.

I've read several NIH studies over the years stating infection control was much easier in the older-style tile construction than in the more modern drywall/wallpaper/carpet construction.