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The Palmer Patent Leg
In 1846, B.F. Palmer filed the first patent for an artificial leg in the United States. His product, characterized by its smoothly articulated knee, ankle, and toe joints, as well as its elegant and lifelike appearance, was an immediate success. It…
Under Chloroform
“Under Chloroform,” an unsigned article on amputation written by surgeon Henry Thompson, was published in the first volume of the popular literary magazine, The Cornhill. At the time, Thompson, a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,…
Webster’s Otaphone, a Patented Hearing Aid
UK patent #7033, dated 17 March 1836, is the earliest British patent for a hearing aid device, granted to the aurist (19th century term for ear specialist) Alphonso William Webster, for his “curious” invention, the Otaphone (sometimes spelled…
Nineteenth-Century Disability: Cultures and Contexts, 2012-2015, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. The project, directed by Karen Bourrier, has been funded by SSHRC and launched with the help of the Research Group for Electronic Textuality and Theory at Western University.
