Amplitude
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
Amplitude

Postcript: Foot-operated Bionic Arm Is So Old, It’s New

October 4, 2022
0
IBM’s foot-activated arm, as shown in 1950

Last week we introduced you to the SuperHand, an upper-limb prosthesis developed in Poland that users control with their feet. A day or two later we heard from Peter Kyberd, an engineering professor at the University of Portsmouth and pioneering developer of prosthetic hands. He’s also the author of a recent book about the history of prosthetic arms titled Making Hands.

Kyberd called our attention to a foot-powered prosthetic arm that IBM developed shortly after World War II. It was developed by an engineer named Samuel Alderson, based on concepts that had been floating around since the late 1910s. “It should enable a man who has lost one, or both, arms to carry on by himself in the daily routine of dressing, eating, handling objects of reasonable size and shape,” Alderson told the New York Times in 1946. “The fingers of the present model are strong enough to permit the wearer to lift up to forty pounds dead weight—say, a piece of luggage filled with contents.”

Alderson’s device incorporated Cold War technology that was originally used in early missile-guidance systems. The original version of his prosthesis was actuated by shoulder movements, but it wasn’t effective for amputees with very short residual limbs. So in the 1950s he created a modified foot-activated model, which Life magazine described in its August 7, 1950 edition: “Unlike other artificial arms, which can be moved only by cables hooked to other parts of the body and which require strenuous effort for every movement, the new arm requires no muscle power. All its power is provided by a battery-driven electric motor mounted in the arm. This is controlled by switches which the amputee operates with his foot.”

In a passage that still rings true almost 75 years later, Life added that the futuristic limb was unavailable to most amputees. “So far only three arms have been built,” it noted. “Most amputees must wait at least two years before they can hope to get an electric limb.”

Some things never change.

Tags: bionic handBionicsprosthesisprosthetic arm
Previous Post

Lessons for Amputees from Australia’s Osseointegration Exposé

Next Post

This Amputee Clinic Puts a Unique Twist on the “Healing Arts”

Next Post
This Amputee Clinic Puts a Unique Twist on the “Healing Arts”

This Amputee Clinic Puts a Unique Twist on the "Healing Arts"


Subscribe Today

Recent Posts

  • New Prosthesis Supports Yoga for Upper-Limb Amputees
  • Four Ways AI Is Making Prosthetic Tech Smarter
  • Top Amputee Performers at the US Paralympic Track & Field Nationals
  • Meet ROMP’s 2023 Adaptive Climb Team
  • Financial Help for Amputees During Mobility May

201 East 4th Street
Loveland, CO 80537
303-255-0843
©2023 Amplitude Media Group

Today’s amputees are living more dynamic lives than ever before. Amplitude Magazine tells their stories.

About Us
Privacy Policy
Subscribe

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin

No part of this electronic publication/website may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Amplitude Media Group.

No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Amputee Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE

Amplitude