In 1862, the government provided the amputee veteran with $75 for an artificial leg and $50 for an artificial arm. By 1895 the US government had granted 144 patents for legs and in 1917, as the United States entered World War I, there were 200 artificial limb manufacturers in the country.
Among the notable manufacturers of artificial limbs was B. Franklin Palmer of Philadelphia, himself an amputee, who had been making such limbs since well before the Civil War.
Ambroise Pare (1509-1590) was the first to tackle the problem of producing artificial limbs and the first to establish their feasibility.
He joined the French army and became a military surgeon in 1536, and consequently was surrounded by the need for these aids. He became a leading surgeon of the Renaissance at a time when surgeons were still considered on a par with butchers.
His inventions were mainly designed for wounded soldiers and he devised for them several arms and hands that were successful.
In his books Oeuvres, he described and provided drawings in great details of an artificial hand, arm and leg designed for soldiers.
First artificial limbs for soldiers
