The Cover Design THE ARTIFICIAL LIMB IN PREINDUSTRIAL FRANCE REED BENHAMOU In 1992, Jacques Monestier, a sculptor and designer of large-scale automatons, completed the design of a prosthetic hand for below-theelbow amputees that had engaged him for some twenty years.1 Visually if not literally a golden arm, its back and realistically formed nails are cast from an alloy of bronze and beryllium, its palm is formed of foam rubber, and the whole is covered with gilded kid leather. The device is said to be capable of grasping an object in its palm (i.e., of cylindrical, perhaps spherical, prehension), of holding a pen (the palmar pinch), even of shuffling a deck of cards.2 Although Monestier’s device differs from the standard hook in appearance, range of motion, and concept (his combination of rigid, articulated back and soft, flexible palm was inspired by the crayfish), it is in other respects a conventional cable-operated appliance which its wearer maneuvers by arching or relaxing his back within a facilitating shoulder harness. For Monestier, the fact that the arm’s mechanism resembles the cabling of a bicycle brake, thus allowing the unit to be repaired at “any local bike shop,” renders it superior to the myoelectric technology of state-of-the-art prostheses.3 Dr. Benhamou is an associate professor at Indiana University, where she teaches interior design and studies the oddities of the 18th century. ‘E. Jane Dickson, “Golden Touch,” London Sunday Times Magazine, December 6, 1992, pp. 66-67. 2As described by Alfonso Tohen, Manual of Mechanical Orthopaedics, trans. Robert W. Milam and Enrique Lopez (Springfield, Ill., 1973), pp. 88—89, the six basic types of prehension are thefingertippinch between the tips of the thumb and index finger (used to pick up a small object); the palmarpinch between the pads of the thumb and index finger, sometimes with lateral pressure exerted by the third digit (used to hold a pen); the lateral pinch between the ball of the thumb and the side of the index finger (used to hold a small object); the cylindricalgrip (used to hold a glass); the sphericalgrip (used to hold a ball); and the hook grip (used to carry a suspended object). ’Dickson, p. 67. Among the most advanced myoelectric devices are those developed by the Sabolich Prosthetic & Research Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the latest allows its wearer to sense pressure and even heat through the appliance (see, e.g., Mike Snider,© 1994 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/94/3504-0003$01.00 835 836 Reed Benhamou It is widely accepted that the conventional cable-operated appliance “was first developed after World War II and since has changed litde.”4 While this may be literally true, it ignores the externally activated, cable-controlled prostheses developed and fitted in 18th-century France and Switzerland. We may allow Monestier’s hand to point us toward these interesting prototypes. The gesture is especially appropriate since, like Monestier, many of their inventors were designers of automatons. While artificial hands capable ofat least the palmar pinch required to hold a pen may have been made as early as the 10th century,5 artifacts and reliable records do not appear until the 14th. Alfred Chapuis and Edouard Gélis, who survey these devices as part of a general history of automatons, note that in 1476 the Swiss clockmaker Ulrich Wagner was paid 11 florins 17 pounds for an artificial hand.6 The authors do not say whether Wagner’s hand could be made to move, but a hand made in 1505 for Gótz de Berlinchingen was capable of a fingertip pinch, the movement activated by a button mounted on the back of the device.7 Gótz was later supplied with a more advanced prosthesis that allowed him to grasp an object and hold a sword. In this version, pressure on two buttons activated springs and gears, one set moving the thumb and the second causing the fingers to flex and extend; leaf springs allowed the index fingers to bend at all three joints.8 Similar technology, if a more refined appearance, is seen in designs for prostheses that the...