NEW ARTIFICIAL LEG

Evening Star, Issue 17327, 15 April 1920, Page 10

NEW ARTIFICIAL LEG

OFFICER’S AGIILTY. . Remarkable feats of agility were performed by an officer wearing a new typa off artificial leg on a stump 6in long at Sister! Randell’s gymnasium class for the disabled! at St. Thomas’s Hospital, S.W. Without! any aid the officer strolled auite naturally! across a slippery' floor, walked along a! plank, climbed a ladder, danced, jumped, and when on a beam balanced himself on one leg. The new leg, designed by a Belgian air-, man who lost his leg flying, is made of “Buralumin,” and weighs 4fjlb, against the BJlb of the leg being supplied by the Government. The hospital authorities claim that with the “Buralumin” leg the wearer! can walk all day without undue fatigue, whfereas with the typo issued by the Government the men are exhausted before reaching their work in the morning. “ Buralumin ” is an alloy, said to have the lightness of aluminium and the strength of steel, which is used for aeroplane fittings. “ I shoot, play cricket, dance, and fish,” said an officer with the new leg. “In fact, lam very nearly back to normal. But with the old leg life was misery.” Sir Arthur Stanley, president of the hospital, :s trying to obtain these legs for every officer and man. He has already fitted out about 30 officers and men from a fund which he collected, the Government grant being insufficient.