Untitled record

No. 37,282. PATENTED JAN. 6, 1863.

T, F. ENGELBRECHT, R. BOEKLEN & W. STAEHLEN. ARTIFICIAL LEG.

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United States Patent Office.

T. F. ENGELBRECHT, OF. NEW YORK, AND R. BOEKLEN AND W. STAEHLEN, OF BROOKLYN, N. Y.

/IMPROVEMENT IN ARTIFICIAL LEdS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,282, dated January 6,1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Theodore F. Engelbrecht, of the city, county, and State of New York, and Reinhold Boeklen, of the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and Stateof New York, and William Staehlen, of the latter city, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Artificial Limbs; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the saitte, reference, being had to the accompany ing drawings, forming part Of this specification, in winch—

Figure 1 is a side view of an artificial leg constructed according to our invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same from back to front. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section, of the same in a transverse direction. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the same in the jplane indicated by the line a? x of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a side view of a portion of the limb exhibiting a mode of corrugating it. Fig. 6 is a cross-section of Fig. 5. Fig. 7 represents a partly sectional view of the foot and lower portion of the leg, illustrating amodification of the ankle-joint. /

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

This invention consists in certain provisions for the adjustment of the parts of an artificial limb in such, manner as may be desirable to adapt it to the length of the natural limb and conformation of the foot of the intending wearer, by which means the necessity of maki ing a limb to suit each particular case is to a great extent obviated, and in consequence the cost of manufacture is considerably reduced; al.30, in a certain novel construction of the arfKle-joint,by which the movements permitted to the said joint are made to-approximate nearer to the natural joint than it does in the artificial legs heretofore constructed, such novel construction being also applicable to the wrist and other joints of an artificial arm. and hand; and it further consists in the construction of such parts of an artificial limb as are required to be rigid, of corrugated plate metal, whereby the limb can be made of sufficientstrerigth with less weight and more durable than when made bf the materials heretofore employed.

To enable others to make and apply our vention, we will proceed to describe it with reference to the drawings.

A is the upper socket or thigtopiece of the leg. B and C are two pieces, which constitute the knee, the lower leg, and the upper portion, of the ankle joint, and D is the foot. The parts A and B are represented as made of sheet metal, each of one or more pieces stamped or otherwise wrought into the requisite shape, and having their edges united by soldering with hard solder.. The piece 0 may be composed of a piece of tubing of uniform size, long enough to enter some distance into the lower part of the piece Band to project some distance · through its lower end. The lower part of B is constructed to form a socket; into which C fits snugly but easily, and within which it may be firmly screwed by means of the screws e f. The screw e passes freely through .a hole, A, in the piece B, through an upright slot,?, in the piece C, and iscrews into a fiut, g, attached to a ring, A, which fits snugly but easily in the piece C to keep the nut in place before the scre w is inserted or after it has been taken out. The screw f passes freely through.,a hole, j, in the piece B, and screws into one of an upright row of tapped holes, H, provided in the piece 0. By scre wing up the two screws e f tightly the piece 0 is firmly secured in the piece B. By slackening thescreweand takingoutthescrew/thepieceU is permitted to be moved up and down within the piece B to shorten or lengthen the limb from the knee joint downward, as illustrated in Fig. 1, in which the -lengthening of the limb is illustrated in red outline. When the pieces B C have been adjusted to the proper length, the screw/ is inserted through the hole g.into the hole i, which is nearest to it, and both screws are screwed up tightly to secure the two. pieces B 0 firmly in proper relation to each other. To provide for this adjustment the holes i i should be as near together as possible. By thus making the lower leg of two pieces, B 0, theartificial limb. is enabled to be adjusted to correspond with the length of the natural leg. The piece B is fitted with the upper part of the front of partly spherical shape to form the knee, and the said piece is connected with the upper piece, A, by means of a joint-pin, E; to make the joint of the knee. A spring, G, is ap· plied to connect A and B for- the purpose of straightening the knee-joint·. The foot D is represented as formed of a shell of sheet metal with a sole of wood faced with vulcanized india-rubber. In the part where the instep is to be formed there is provided an angular cavity, in n, for the reception of a packing, p, of wocl, raw cotton, or other suitable . material, by which it may be built up tb make a high or low instep, as may be required, the said packing being secured in place by two flaps, F F, of leather or other flexible material, sewed or otherwise secured at their lower edges to the sides of the foot, and provided with eyelets q q at their' upper edges for the reception of a lace, r, by which they are secured together to confine the packing.

Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 illustrate- one construction of the. ankle-joint, and Fig. 7 another construction of the same, by which we are enabled to obtain all the movements of which the ankle is capable in nature-—viz., an upward and downward or backward and forward movement, to depress and elevate the to,e and heel relatively to the leg, as is always necessary in walking, and which is the only movement commonly provided in artificial legs, a lateral movement of the foot, as is illustrated by red outline in Fig. 3, for the foot to accommodate itself to any desirable extent to the surface of uneven ground, aud a-horizontal, or nearly horizontal, movement about an axis nearly coincident or parallel with the length of the leg, illustrated by the red outline iu Fig. 4, which, in walking, always takes place to a slight extent in the natural ankle, the foot being permitted in the last-mentioned movement always to arrive at a given normal position when raised •from the ground, and the said normal position being with the toe turned more or less outward, as the habit of the wearer may be or may have been with the natural foot.

Figs. 2,3 show a bali-aijd-cup joint, of which the ball s is formed on the foot and the cup Z ou the lower part of the piece C. This joint is held together by a fork-headed screw bolt, H, and a strong spring, I, of ijidia-rubber or other material. The spring I is made to connect the bolt H with the piece C by means of a pin, «, passing transversely through the fork-head of the bolt, both of the said pins passing through the spring or having its ends otherwise attached to each of them, and being fitted with rollers to protect the springs from wear,, and the said bolt is connected with the foot by means of a nut, H', screwing onto its lower end, the said nut serving also to produce and regulate the tension of pull of the springl The ball, if made hollow, as represented in Figs. 2 and 3, is made with- a deep and strong rigid central socket, v, to hold the bolt in a stead j- condition, and the said socket is connected with the heel or side of the foot in th© manner sfiown in Fig. 2 for the reception of a set-screw, w, vthich is fitted into a tapped hole therein, for the purpose of secur ing rue foot upon the bolt iu such manner that it is incapable of turning thereon. The spring I, when the foot is raised from the ground, draws the bolt H to Such a position that its' axis if prolonged would intersect the axis of the upper pin, it, at right angles, and the said pin is so arranged that when the bolt is in that position the foot is in the northal position it is desired to assume with reference to the leg when off the ground, yet. it permits the fr v upward and downward movement of the and heel,and the lateral movement illustrated by the red outline in Fig. 3 in walking; and by making the said spring wide, or giving it a long bearing upon the pins u u', it is also made to act upon the foot to stop the movement hereinbefore described with reference to the red outline in Fig. 4, in such manner that in the normal position the toe is turned in a more or less outward direction, as may be desired, and yet that in walking the said., movement is permitted to a desirable extent. The foot may be adjusted to bring the toe more orless outward in the normal position of • the foot according to the natural habit of the wearer, or to the position considered most natural or graceful, by unscrewing, the setscrew w to permit the foot to turn on the bolt H independently of the spring I, and after having made such adjustment the said setscrew is again screwed up tightly upon the bolt. .

Fig. 7 shows a ball-and-socket ankle-joint, of which the ball J is composed of the head of an inverted screw-bolt, y, screwed rigidly by a nut, K, to the bottom of the piece C_t and the socket z is formed in the foot, the said socket being made of two pieces screwed together, and its interior forming a portion of a sphere greater than a hemisphere, that it may attach the foot to the ball-head of the bolt without any other connection. In this construction of the ankle-joint we employ instead of the tension or pulley spring I a compressing : or pushing spring, L, composed of a piece of stout india-rubber tubing, the edges .of which are fitted snugly within annular cavities 10 10, formed within the bottom Of the piece 0 .and the top of the foot. This spring, pressing evenly all round between the piece O and·'the foot, and being incapable of turning, has the same effect in every respect as the tension spring I in-bringing the foot to its proper normal position relatively to the leg. To permit the adjustment of the foot to bring the toe in the more or less outward direction in the normal position, the nut K requires to be slackened, after which the foot can be turned, independently of the spring. When the adj ustinei’t has been made, it is securedby screwing down the nut to secure the bolt rigidly to the piece 0. To permit the nut to be moved, the piece 0 must be withdrawn from the piece B, which can be done after slackening the screw e and taking out the screw/. We prefer this last-described construction of the ankle joint in some respects to that first de37,282 scribed, though the only superiority which it is particularly desirable to mention is that the foot and leg do not lap the one over the other, but their edges are separated and the joint is made perfectly close by means of the india-rubber ring which constitutes the spring and preventing the entrance of dust between them to the interior of the limb. The distinguishingcharacteristic of both of these joints, as compared with the ankle-joints of other artificial limbs, is that the spring, acting in combination with the ball and socket, draws the foot to and holds it in its proper normal condition without the aid of stops or any other bearings than the ball and socket.

A joint constructed either like that shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4, or that shown in Fig. 7,.but more especially that shown in Fig. 7, may be advantageously used for the wrist or other joints’ of an artificial arm or hand. The thigh piece or socket A has a number of longitudinal slits, a a, in its upper part to form a corresponding number of flexible prongs, δ b, in the edges of which there are provided eyelebholes d d for the reception of laces e c, by which to lace them together to make them fit closely upon the stump of the natural leg, by which construction-the said thigh piece or socket can be fitted to the size and form of the said stump, and is also made to provide for the ventilation thereof.

We propose in the manufacture of artificial limbs of metal plate to corrugate the piece B, which forms the portion of the leg below the knee, and such other portions of an artificial limb as may be. practicable or desirable,/he length of the corrugations being lengthwise or the limb, as shown at 1212 in Fig. 3, by which means we are enabled to make the limb of a given strength with less weight than when made of any other material.

Limbs made Of metal, either plain or corrugated, may and should preferably be covered with leather.