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Show A WONDERFUL HAND. An Artificial Substitute Nearly as Perfect as the Natural Member. Willard A. Lucas, the son of a great woolen manufacturer at Poquetannuck, Conn., wears an artificial hand made of aluminium which is really one of tha automatical wonders of the century. Young Lucas lost his hand in his father's fa-ther's mills, and Lucas, Sr., who grieved exceedingly over the results of the accident, ac-cident, wrote or went in person to everj known manufacturer of artificial limbs in this country and Europe, vainly seeking a false hand for his son. Artificial Arti-ficial hands could have been procured from any of them, but what was wanted want-ed was not to bo found viz, a hand that would perform all the functions of a real flesh and blood member. Finally the elder Lucas, who is known as a rare mechanical genius, took it upon himself to make his son a hand not a mere "dummy, " but one that would be useful for the manifold purposes to which such members are put. Tho result is a surprise to every maker of artificial limbs in the world. The automaton is of aluminium and much resembles the steel gauntlets worn by the knights of the middle ages. The fingers are all perfect and lifelike, the joints in each bending as readily aa those in a natural hand, making it possible pos-sible for the young man to perform every ev-ery kind of labor. An expert report on this wonderful piece of mechanism reads as follows : "With it he can grasp and handily use all kinds of tools, pick up things from the ground, drive, handle a gun in fact, use it quickly and skillfully at any kind of work. Like a natural hand, the artificial one consists of a palm that is provided with a fastening by which it is attached to a cork ' stump, ' the joints working by a ratchet, so that the fingers may be bent forward at any angle and held there. The hand may be only partly closed or tightly shut, and only one finger or all, as the wearer wear-er desires, may be closed at once and instantly by striking them against the body or other object. To release the grasp it is only necessary to touch a spring at the back of the hand. The invention is aa nearly a perfect substi- j tute for a natural hand as could be devised de-vised and is tho only thing of the kind known in the world." St. Louis Republic. |