Call it a toll of war, call it experience by years, but it is just a true, frank statement: I know way too many people who are missing limbs. Many have lost hands, feet, legs, eyesight and in many cases their minds as well. And that’s before we get into other issues, such as disease, accidents and the C-word that I can say in public. When humans started out on this planet, missing limbs all but promised that you were not going to eat well, and that if a big cat suddenly decided you were dinner…well, so long. Then it became a matter of public hindrance, a disability. Peg-legged sailors, riflemen with the sleeve sewn shut where an arm should have been. Nowadays, prosthetics are borderline unreal. From a basic foot extension that assists with balance to the radical neuroprosthetic technologies that are being studied and tested, what you can get away with via prosthetic devices today is nothing short of amazing. Handicapped? Not as much as you might think.
The amazing thing about this home-built aluminum hand…itself, a pretty loaded group of words…isn’t that it was built at home, or that it functions as well as it does. The fingers can splay, they can grip, they can form a fist, that’s pretty solid for a home-built unit. No, the impressive thing is that it was built at home by your narrator…you know, the man who actually needed the prosthetic because he is missing a good portion of his hand? As he shows off the latest generation of his device, you’ll pick up on the improvements he’s made along the way, such as the move away from 3D-printed fingers (too fragile).
“I built my own artificial hand, and it works great.” How do you follow up a gem like that?
Thanks to Kevin Brown for the tip!
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