Photo from the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
A photo of the Carnes arm produced by a Warren-native at the Carnes Artificial Limb Company in Kansas City, Mo.
William T. Carnes was working in a machine shop in Pittsburgh in the early 1900s.
His arm was caught in a spinning cog-wheel and it was amputated two inches above the elbow, according to an article from the Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library.
Without an arm, his career as a machinist was over.
Many of the social safety net programs that could have helped Carnes provide for himself in the wake of this accident didn’t exist at the time.
The accident placed Carnes in a place where he had legitimate livelihood concerns.
Photo from eBay
This image is of an advertisement for the Carnes Artificial Arm. It cites “ease in writing, eating, dressing, holding a book or paper, carrying a suit case, shaving – and in fact everything they do.”
According to the Library article, Carnes secured a prosthetic arm but only wore it briefly. It was more cosmetic than it was functional.
So he made his own.
“He began a close study of the workings and movement of the human arm and hand, exploring the anatomy and experimenting with how to transfer the movements and abilities of a living arm to the gears, levers and cranks of an artificial arm,” the Library article details, “one that would respond to the promptings of the muscles still in the remains of the living arms.”
He wasn’t just trying to make something that looked nice.
He wanted to build something that would be useful, that would bring back fine motor skills for the victims of amputations.
And, at least at the outset, he built those limbs in Warren.
From the Library: “Creating the prototype was an arduous and lengthy journey, in no small part because he was doing all the work with one arm and one hand.”
The connection to Kansas City was made by a man from the city that needed an arm and heard of Carnes, who said he couldn’t afford the skilled labor needed to make the arms in Warren.
“Two years after they started the business in Kansas City,” the Library article states, “the Carnes Artificial Arm was being worn in 32 states and in Canada and the Carnes Artificial Arm Company had grown so much that it had opened branch offices in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.”
And, they say, it was recognized with a gold medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco as well as an exhibition sponsored by Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospitals in London.
The Warren Times-Mirror appears to have first picked up writing about Carnes patent in September 1911 with a headline “FORMER WARREN MAN’S INVENTION PRAISED” from an item published in a New York and Chicago publication.
“If someone were to tell you that a man who had lost both arms close to the shoulder and had yet found artificial substitutes which permitted him to shave himself, feed himself, carry a satchel, pick up small coins from the floor and,” the paper wrote, “do practically everything that arms are meant to do – would you believe it?
“Maybe you would and maybe you wouldn’t. At any rate, we didn’t.”
That author professes that doctors, scientists and others “all admit that the Carnes patents for artificial limbs are the most advanced known to the world today.”
It was a demonstration that won them over – “right before our eyes we saw a pleasant young man who had lost one arm just below the shoulder and the other above the wrist use with great facility a comb, a pen, a razor, a knife and fork and so on; all by means of two Carnes artificial arms.”
They specifically highlighted the “full finger motion hand and the automatic rotating and flexible wrist and elbow.”
A 1919 article in the Warren Evening Times gave some additional details on how the Carnes Artificial Arm worked: “Each finger has three joints and the thumb two. Sufficient pressure can be exerted by the new hand to permit an object weighing ten pounds to be picked up and held between the thumb and finger tips.
“It consists of surprisingly few parts – about sixty in number – and is controlled by a single cord. This connected to a comfortable harness that is similar to the simplest forms of shoulder brace. The hand is carefully patterned after the human one, is made of aluminum and when gloved has a most natural appearance.
“The unique operation of these attachments is based upon a slight nuancing movement of the shoulder which works cords corresponding to the direct and reflex muscles and tendons on the arm aided by a ratchet arrangement.”
Even the descriptions on how it worked were effusive in praise.
“A handkerchief can be taken from a pocket with ease,” the Evening Times reported, “a cigar held in a natural position and extended to the mouth and a pen or pencil used with splendid success.
“The results accomplished are unbelievable without their being witnessed…. They are the finest substitute for persons who have suffered the misfortune of amputation that one can find on the market today.”
To be continued.
