Vintage Photographs of Artificial Limbs will Change the Way You See them Forever

A false nose from the mid-nineteenth century to hide the absence of a syphilis nurse’s nose. Royal College of Surgeons

A German man riding a bicycle using prosthesis on both arms and legs. The photo was taken by Dr. P.A. Smithe, American Red Cross surgeon at the Vienna Red Cross Hospital. CNN

Postcard of British soldiers wearing artificial legs. The parallel bars are to support the men as they learn to walk with their new limbs. This scene was almost certainly photographed at Queen Mary’s Convalescent Auxiliary Hospital, Roehampton, London. This specialized orthopedic hospital opened in 1915 and was mainly devoted to fitting artificial limbs to British soldiers who lost limbs during World War One, 1914-1918, of whom there were around 240,000. Photo by SSPL/Getty Images

A disabled German ex-serviceman working as a carpenter with the aid of a prosthetic arm, Germany, circa 1919. (Photo by FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

War and Conflict, World War I, (1914-1918) Casualties of War, pic: circa 1919, An artificial limb maker at work in Berlin perhaps Berlin’s busiest industry after the carnage of the Great War. Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images

World War I, Wounded veterans with their prostheses, 1916. (Photo by Jacques Boyer/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)

French World War I veterans making use of artificial limbs. Pinterest

A man with a Prosthesis operating a lathe. Pinterest

Studio portrait of William Tennant, standing with short pants that reveal his prosthetic legs. He holds a newspaper in his left hand, balances on a cane in his right. Pinterest

A World War I double amputee playing billiards with his new prosthetics. Pinterest

Künstliche Fußmaschine (means Artistic Foot Machine), by Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger, 1809. io9.gizmodo

Samuel Decker, a Civil War veteran who built his own prosthetics, mid-1860s. oi9.gizmodo

A French soldier injured during WWI. io9.gizmodo

Patrick O’Neill, a one-armed blacksmith, illustrating his useful false limb, November 1929. io9.gizmodo

A man with a mechanical hand making a castor for a piece of furniture in a workshop, 1942. io9.gizmodo

Captain Maxwell uses his artificial arm to hammer a nail. The arm was supplied by the Ministry of Pensions for service and civilian war casualties, July 1942. io9.gizmodo

Mr. Brown, the works manager at the Ministry of Pensions, tests an artificial hand recently designed by Mr. A. W. Shaw, May 1948. io9.gizmodo

Brothers Donald, left, and Paul Holmen of Holmen Laboratories measure irises on plastic eyes on the Multi-Cyclops roundtable in Burbank, California, December 1948. io9.gizmodo

A man in military uniform with a prosthetic right arm sits at a table cutting a piece of meat. io9.gizmodo