His arm was caught in a spinning cog-wheel and it was amputated two inches above the elbow, in keeping with an article from the Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library.

Without an arm, his profession as a machinist was over.

Many of the social security internet applications that might have helped Carnes present for himself within the wake of this accident didn’t exist on the time.

The accident positioned Carnes in a spot the place he had reputable livelihood considerations.

Photo from eBay
This picture is of an commercial 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 however solely wore it briefly. It was extra beauty than it was useful.

So he made his personal.

“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 particulars, “one that would respond to the promptings of the muscles still in the remains of the living arms.”

He wasn’t simply making an attempt to make one thing that seemed good.

He wished to construct one thing that will be helpful, that will carry again high quality motor abilities for the victims of amputations.

And, not less than on the outset, he constructed these 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 person from the town that wanted an arm and heard of Carnes, who mentioned he couldn’t afford the expert labor wanted 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 are saying, it was acknowledged with a gold medal on the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in addition to an exhibition sponsored by Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospitals in London.

The Warren Times-Mirror seems to have first picked up writing about Carnes patent in September 1911 with a headline “FORMER WARREN MAN’S INVENTION PRAISED” from an merchandise printed 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 virtually the whole lot that arms are supposed to do – would you imagine it?

“Maybe you would and maybe you wouldn’t. At any rate, we didn’t.”

That creator professes that docs, scientists and others “all admit that the Carnes patents for artificial limbs are the most advanced known to the world today.”

It was an indication that received 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 particularly highlighted the “full finger motion hand and the automatic rotating and flexible wrist and elbow.”

A 1919 article within the Warren Evening Times gave some extra particulars on how the Carnes Artificial Arm labored: “Each finger has three joints and the thumb two. Sufficient stress could be exerted by the brand new hand to allow an object weighing ten kilos to be picked up and held between the thumb and finger suggestions.

“It consists of surprisingly few components – about sixty in quantity – and is managed by a single wire. This related to a snug harness that’s much like the only types of shoulder brace. The hand is rigorously patterned after the human one, is made from aluminum and when gloved has a most pure look.

“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 the way it labored have been effusive in reward.

“A handkerchief can be taken from a pocket with ease,” the Evening Times reported, “a cigar held in a pure place and prolonged 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.