An artificial arm and a plaster cast of the stump of the wearer’s arm. The arm was manufactured by James Gillingham (1839-1924), a boot- and shoemaker based in Chard, Somerset, England. Gillingham first started making artificial limbs after a local man lost an arm firing a cannon for a celebratory salute in 1863. He then began making prosthetics on a permanent basis, and Chard eventually became a major center of the British artificial-limb industry.
Sum of the Parts: Prosthetics Through the Centuries
People have been devising fake arms, legs, noses and virtually every other body part for centuries. Here, a quick look at some of the devices that humans have invented to replace -- or at least approximate -- the irreplaceable.
Prosthetic Hand With Fork
Full List
Prosthetics
- Tycho Brahe’s Nose
- Prosthetic Eyes
- Prosthetic Ear
- Hammer Hand
- Facial Prosthetics
- Variety of Prostheses
- Artificial Leg, Italy
- Artificial Arms, Real Saw
- Artificial Noses
- Prosthetic Arms for Thalidomide Kids
- Artificial Foot
- Jaipur Foot, Interior View
- Prosthetic Hand With Fork
- Prosthetic Leg
- Prosthetic Breast
- False Eye
- Life-Like Arm, With Tattoo
- False Teeth
- WWI-Era Facial Prostheses
- The Full Prosthetic: Bionic Man