Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10560
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‘Sketch of a seaman with substitute arms’
Date
1853
Creator - Organisation
Day & Son, Lithographers
After
H W Hampton , Draftsman
Object type
Library reference
47871
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 241mm
width (print): 438mm
width (print): 438mm
Subject
Description
Full length portrait of an unnamed sailor described as ‘Coxswain to Admiral Legge’ [Sir Arthur Kaye Legge (1766-1835)] with details of artificial or prosthetic arms designed by Oliver Lang and some explanatory notes.
Plate 12 from the book Improvements in naval architecture, by Oliver Lang (Woolwich, 1853).
The plate is headed ‘SKETCH OF A SEAMAN, WITH SUBSTITUTE ARMS’ and is inscribed ‘H.W.Hampton Del. Day & Son, Lithrs. To the Queen.’
The accompanying text states that “A poor Seaman...who lost his arms in battle..had been twenty years in a condition not able to help himself to any thing. Mr Lang seeing the poor fellow in such distress, in the year 1828 invented and fitted a double arm to the stump of his original...to enable him to feed himself and carry bundles of clothes and water for his wife whose chief employment was washing clothes for various persons.”
Oliver Lang (1777-1853) was a master shipwright at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich.
Plate 12 from the book Improvements in naval architecture, by Oliver Lang (Woolwich, 1853).
The plate is headed ‘SKETCH OF A SEAMAN, WITH SUBSTITUTE ARMS’ and is inscribed ‘H.W.Hampton Del. Day & Son, Lithrs. To the Queen.’
The accompanying text states that “A poor Seaman...who lost his arms in battle..had been twenty years in a condition not able to help himself to any thing. Mr Lang seeing the poor fellow in such distress, in the year 1828 invented and fitted a double arm to the stump of his original...to enable him to feed himself and carry bundles of clothes and water for his wife whose chief employment was washing clothes for various persons.”
Oliver Lang (1777-1853) was a master shipwright at the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich.
Associated place