Socket Leg with Improved Knee Joint

History

As a compromise between cheap peg legs and more expensive high-end devices, such as artificial legs, some companies made modified peg legs, which users with modest budgets could afford. These devices didn’t offer the range of movement and lifelike appearance of more expensive contraptions, but they did include features including moveable leg joints. These could be used when seated to prevent the leg from sticking out awkwardly and inviting unwanted attention. For more on why prosthesis users wanted their impairments to be hidden, see Chapter 2 of see Ryan Sweet’s free 2022 book Prosthetic Body Parts in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.