Man wearing a prosthetic device for the arms and hand, 1890-1910.

Studio photograph of a man's arm. He is mising three fingers and is wearing an artificial arm with a hook to compensate for their absence. The arm device was manufactured by James Gillingham (1839-1924), a boot- and shoemaker based in Chard, Somerset. Gillingham first started making artificial limbs after a local man lost an arm firing a cannon for a celebratory salute in 1863. He then began making prostheses on a permanent basis and Chard eventually became a major centre of the British artificial limb industry.