The Dovre Ski Binding Company, like many producers of ski equipment, had Norwegian roots. The two founders were originally from Norway, and the business was named after a mountain range in the country. Dovre, however, is a 100% American success story - the founders met growing up Massachusetts and by the 1930s had built their company to be a leading maker of ski bindings.
Ok, enough with the malarkey. So the problem with cable-style bindings for downhill skiing is that downhill skiers tend to fall a lot, and cable bindings don't release the boot that easily. So what happened? Statistics showed that by the 1950s, 110% of people who downhill skied at least once in a given ski season ended up with a tib/fib break or catastrophic knee injury. Think I'm kidding? Well I may be exaggerating slightly but you get the point - your mom's concern about your going downhill skiing was not unfounded. But by the time you started skiing the binding issue had likely been resolved so...
ANYWAY. You may have noticed that this box only contains a front toe piece. In essence, half a binding. The idea behind this setup is that you would mount the toe piece, which kept the front of the boot in place, and a rear contraption, separately sold, would hold the heel in place. BUT this contraption was on sort of a swivel, so if you "yard saled" during a run eventually the sideways force would snap the heel out of the back, and with it your toe might release. And you were spared a trip to the hospital. This setup wasn't as good as modern "safety" bindings, but it was a whole lot better than what came before.
