AN ARTIFICIAL ARM AND LEG UPON A NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
POTTS, of Belford, in the County of Northumberland, Clock and Watch
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of November, in the forty-first year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said James Potts, His especial licence that
I, the said James Potts, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN ARTIFICIAL ARM AND LEG
UPON A NEW OR IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James Potts, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Potts, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an artificial arm

page_text: and leg on a new construction, is described in the hereunder Drawing and
description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Potts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred.
Fig. 1, a box or tube, made of bend leather, near the shape of the stump
and properly fitted to Fig. 2. Fig. 2, a wooden joint about three inches thick;
I, I, the stops to prevent the joint going beyond the streight; K, the upper
lock; H, the joint pin hole. Fig. 3, a piece of wood 'from the joint of the
knee to the virl of the ball; it is made to imitate the bone of the leg; M, the
under lock of the knee; I, the joint pin hole; O, the virl and ball. Fig. 4,
a foot in two halves, made of wood, something like the natural foot, and to
allow stuffing; S, S, the sockets which are brass, and made to inclose the ball;
P, P, holes for the screw nails with nuts; R, the toe joint. Fig. 5, a picce
of wood shaped like the toes, and jointed to have the motions of the fore foot.
Fig. 6, a skeleton of a leg without stuffing. Fig. 7, a leg finished for the
left side, as all those pieces are, and is designed for an ampitation above the
knee, is secured by a strap to the body, which strap is fastened at the back of
leg, is passed over the opposite shoulder, and is buckled to a short strap before,
when the amputation is below the knee, and the use of 'natural knee joint saved;
the construction of the ankle and foot is exactly the same, with a leather tube
to receive the stump, when for the right side the shape of the skeleton must
be altered according to the shape of the leg. It is necessary that the inside of
the tube be stuffed as well for the ease of the wearer as to prevent the leather
from rotting with the sweat of the body; the outside "must be 'stuffed to
prevent the breeches from wearing the whole leg must be stuffed to bring it
up to the natural shape and give it-the appearance of flesh; "the knee joint
must not he 'so nicely made as not to allow sonie stuffing, to prevent noise
in walking, and must be perfectly flexible, that the leg may fall, 'as it is
impelled by its own gravity, likewise to have full liberty from the joint pin
hole which is made long on purpose to let the locks pass' each other when the
weight of the body is off the leg, so that it may follow naturally as the person
walks the joint pin is a plain-screw nail with a nut The ankle must be
harder stuffed to retain its shape, and two pieces of wood" put into the
stuffing to imitate the ankle bones. The sockets must be so much cut away
as to allow of all the natural motions to the foot, so that it may yield' any way
that it is impell'd and make the step secure; the toe piece is fastened to the
foot by a joint pin; the leg must be covered with leather and quilted to keep

page_text: it to the shape, no springs is necessary in the whole leg, excepting some small
ones at the ankle, to make the stocking appear in natural wrinkles. The
knee pan is formed by the stuffing. The arm is made exactly upon the same
principle, with a flexible joint at the elbow that it may swing in walking.
The wrist and finger joints, bals and sockets, and stuffed, and the hand painted
of a flesh colour, and fastened to the body by a strap over the opposite
shoulder. The stuffing of the leg may either be wool or flax, and the skeleton
made as ruff as possible, and likewise quilted when made exactly to the
shape.