Parmelee’s Artificial Leg

History

New York-based artificial limb maker Dubois Parmelee pioneered using atmospheric pressure to attach above-the-knee artificial legs. Many US designers sold their legs internationally, and some users in Britain used American prostheses. Parmelee’s invention was one of many technological developments in prosthesis technology in the nineteenth century. For more on these innovations, see chapter 1 of Ryan Sweet’s free 2022 book Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.