Specification of James Ashman : artificial limbs.

  • Ashman, James.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of James Ashman : artificial limbs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Artificial Limbs. LETTERS PATENT to James Asliman, of Swansea, Glamorganshire, for the Invention of “ Improvements in the Manufacture of Artificial Limbs.” Sealed the 53rd January 1857, and dated the 24th July 1856. PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Ashman at tho Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th July 1856. I, James Ashman, of Swansea, Glamorganshire, do hereby declare the 5 nature of the said Invention for “Improvements in the Manufacture of Artificial Limbs,” to be as follows:— The object of this Invention is to manufacture artificial limbs of a lighter and more durable material than that now used, and to give greater freedom of * action and more play to these mechanical appliances. 10 The first part of this Invention consists of the use of a new material for the manufacture of artificial limbs; this is composed of butt leather, which is further hardened by being treated with a solution of naptha and gum shellac, or other similar matters. Over this material a surface of waterproof lining cloth is to be placed, and the whole is to be covered with buck 15 leather. Secondly, the Invention consists of the use of a peculiar joint for fastening the upper or thigh part of an artificial leg to the leg and foot, and of a new and peculiar joint for the foot and ancle, so constructed as to give lateral motion to the foot. 20 Thirdly, of the use of an arrangement of mechanism at that part of the foot called the os calcis, consisting of a tube containing four or more metallic