Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1914 — CRIPPLE INVENTS NEW LEG [ARTICLE]

CRIPPLE INVENTS NEW LEG

Young French Aviator Turns His Misfortune to Profit —May Make Fortune. Faria —lt is not often that ah infirmity carries with it the possibilities of making a fortune, but this is what seemß to have happened to M. Desoutter, the young French airman, who had his leg a'mputated as the result of a flylqg accident abput two years ago. He has Invented an artificial leg, the improvements in which should Insure great commercial possibilities. In ah interview M. Desoutter described how, after a year’s misery with the ordinary false leg, he started experimenting on one which would be lighter than most "Why," he said, "you ’can’t walk more than fifty yards without feeling done up. In walking you of course swing each leg and you can’t swing an artificial leg weighing anything from six pounds to ten pounds very far.” The artificial limb devised by the young Frenchman weighs only two pounds, andjlts chief factor is an alloy of his own discovery in which aluminum figures. Asked whether in consideration of the weight of one’s natural leg two pounds is not too light, M. Desoutter replied that if It could weigh nothing at all it would be so much the better. “Another thing you must remember is that artificial limbs have to be supported by straps over Ehe shoulders and around the waist and the more the weight the more you-are pulled forward.”