Artificial Leg
date: label: date made
content: 1866
name: label: maker
content: Bly, Douglas
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Today most people associate the need for an artificial limb with the consequences of war. But, in nineteenth century America industrial and farm accidents were common.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Patent model # 57666 of a prosthetic leg was invented by Dr. Douglas Bly. This particular patent for the improvement in artificial legs was granted 4 September 1866. Douglas Bly was born in 1824 in West Henrietta, Monroe County, New York. He attended medical school in Philadelphia graduating in 1851. Bly received thirteen patents for artificial legs and improvements to artificial legs. He eventually went into business manufacturing his artificial limbs. Bly died May 10, 1876 in Rochester, New York.
label: Description (Brief)
content: His first patent in 1857 for an artificial leg (#17888, reissue #1510 in 1863) was co-invented with R. H. Nicholas and is in the collection of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware.
label: Description
content: Patent model for Douglas Bly, “Improvement in Artificial Legs,” U.S. Patent 57666 (September 4, 1866).
label: Description
content: Douglas Bly (1824-1876) was a physician who held thirteen patents for artificial legs and improvements thereto. He eventually settled in Rochester, New York, and began manufacturing artificial limbs.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Patent Models
label: Subject
content: Medicine
label: Subject
content: Prosthesis
label: Subject
content: Disabilities
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1978.0273.01
label: accession number
content: 1978.0273
label: catalog number
content: 1978.0273.01
label: patent number
content: 57,666
objectType: label: Object Name
content: leg, prosthetic
label: Object Name
content: prosthesis
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/2 in x 18 7/8 in x 10 in; 16.51 cm x 47.9425 cm x 25.4 cm