http://youtu.be/xLg_3XyXAyc

We can’t just get enough of those Naughty, Naughty Roentgen Rays. The above commercial, from 1930s Germany, nicely illustrates the fears (and titillation) surrounding Dr. Roentgen’s invention, then goes on to assure the modern woman that rumors of “Roentgetn glasses,” been true, she would be well served by the elegance of contemporary Felina lingerie.

And these fears were real enough to sustain a brief market in anti-voyeueristic dress manufacture as evidenced by this ad from 1896 for “the perfect dress interlining.”

The seamy peekaboo undercurrents associated with the medical marvel are likewise nicely evoked by this photo found on one of our favorite Tumblr blogs, Sutured Infection.

And from the blog Glamor Daze we some American footage from the 1940s that reminds us of that X-rays had much to recommend them to foot fetishists too who might have enjoyed hanging around shoe stores where X-ray scanners were kept around to aid in fitting and attract curious  consumers.

Finally, a bit of verse, also penned by Lawrence K. Russel and published by Life Magazine in 1896:

She is so tall, so slender; and her bones– Those frail phosphates, those carbonates of lime– Are well produced by cathode rays sublime; By oscillations, amperes and by ohms, Her dorsal vertebrae are no concealed By epidermis, but are well revealed.

Around her ribs, those beauteous twenty-four, Her flesh a halo makes, misty in lime, Her noseless, eyeless face looks into mine, And I but whisper, “Sweetheart, je t’adore.” Her white and gleaming teeth at me do laugh, Ah! lovely, cruel, sweet cathodagraph!