Artificial hand.

Application filed February 28,1905, Serial No. 247,695.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Zachariah D. Taylor, a citizen of the United States, residing at Clay, in the county of Clay and State of West Virginia, have invented a new and useful Artificial Hand, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to artificial hands.

The object of the invention is to adapt the hand to grasp objects in such manner as to enable the wearer of the article to handle a fork or the like and in w’hich the fingers of the hand may be adjusted to assume and maintain natural positions, thereby diverting attention from the device.

With the above and other objects in view, as will appear as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists in the novel construction and combination of parts of an artificial hand, as will be hereinafter fully described and. claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts, Figure 1 is a view exhibiting a human figure having the artificial hand of the present invention combined therewith. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the hand, showing the fingers and thumb of the latter closed and the means for securing this result. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail view, on an enlarged scale, through one of the fingers of the hand.

The article comprises a socket 10 to fit upon the stump of a severed limb, (indicated at 1.1 by dotted lines in. Fig. 1,) the socket having combined with it by rivets 13^a a plurality of spaced straps 13 and an arm-encircling strap 12, carrying a buclde 14 to effect requisite adjustments. The hand is supported in the proper position relatively to the stump of a severed limb by two shoulder-encircling straps 15 and 16, with the former of which is connected a strap 18, engaging at its lower end with the strap 12 and having intermediate of its ends a buclde 19 for the purpose of adjustment, the straps 15 and 16 being similarly provided with, buckles 21 and 22 for the same purpose. The straps 15 and 16 are connected by a transverse strap 17, (indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1,) having combined with it a buclde 20 for purposes of adjustment. -As herein shown, the hand-supporting strap 18 is connected with, the shoulder-strap 15, as the figure is represented as being devoid of the right hand; but the rela tion of these parts will be reversed when the amputation is on the left-hand side.

The outer, or lower end of the socket 10 is formed to resemble the metacarpus of a hand, (designated generally 23, but not being in skeleton form) and is provided with five tenons or projections 24, corresponding to the terminals of metacarpal bones. The first row of phalanges 25 of the fingers and thumb are each provided at one end with a mortise to engage the tenons or projections 24 and are held combined therewith by rivets 27, and the opposite ends of the first row of phalanges are each provided with tenons which engage mortises in the second row of phalanges, and this latter row of phalanges is provided at its terminals with tenons which engage mortises in a third row of phalanges and a second phalanx of the thumb, the second and third row of the phalanges and the second phalanx of the thumb being connected by rivets 26, as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3. By this means of articulating the fingers and thumb these parts, by mechanism presently to be described, can. be closed around an object, such as a fork, and will hold the latter with sufficient firmness to enable it to be used in eating. The ends of the phalanges are beveled or cut away on the inner side of the hand to permit them to fold inward, over the palm in the manner shown in Fig. 2. Each of the phalanges is provided with a longitudinal aperture 28, which communicate with a corresponding series of longitudinal apertures 29 in the metacarpus and. converge toward the wrist portion of the hand, the apertures 29 being bored through the back of the metacarpus and disposed at reverse angles to each other, thereby to facilitate the threading of the flexing elements 31 therethrough, which may be of any suitable material, such as picture-frame wire or catgut. The outer end of each, of the flexing elements is secured in the third row of phalanges and in the second phalanx of the thumb, as by means of a knot or by any other preferred manner, and the rear ends of the said elements are secured to a tensionexerting element 32, which may be a strip of suitable fabric or a leather strap and is adapted to engage with, a buckle 33, carried by a strap or fastening 34, secured by a rivet 35 to the socket 10.

It will be seen from the foregoing description that when draft is applied to the part 32

797,335 the flexing element will exert a closing action upon the joints of the fingers and thumb and cause the same to close inward, the fingers longitudinally of the metacarpus and the thumb approximately at right angles or transversely thereto. By manipulating the flexing element connecting with the thumb the latter may be first folded in so as to lie under the fingers, or by exerting draft upon the tension element the fingers are caused to close in over the palm of the hand and then the thumb over the indexfinger, as shown in Fig. 2. When the desired adjustment has been secured, the member 32 is brought into engagement with the buckle 33, thereby holding the parts at the adjustment desired .

In the use of the artificial hand the natural hand of the wearer will adjust the flexing element as may be necessary to meet the requirements, and it will be found in use that it will successfully accomplish the results desired.

All the parts may be made of any suitable material embodying lightness and strength— such as stamped sheet metal, aluminium, or a composition of matter.