IN A PREVIOUS article, "Seamless Prosthetic Hands: A Technic of Fabrication."1 methods of producing prosthetic rubber and plastic hands in rubber molds were explained in detail. Since the appearance of this article, numerous advances have been made. They are primarily new methods of producing molds and improved plastics and a technic of making partial hands.
Nineteen years ago one of us (C. D. C.) produced seamless electroplated molds over actual amputated hands. Agar molds were also used to cast seamless wax hands, which were treated with graphite and electroplated. In any event, both methods produced difficulties. The actual dead hand could serve as a pattern only once. It was possible to get no more than one wax hand out of an agar mold. Suitable resilient plastics had not been discovered at that time. Therefore, rubber was the prosthetic material of choice. Even today some workers are making
CLARKE CD, WEINBERG F. NEW ADVANCES IN SEAMLESS PROSTHETIC HANDS. Arch Surg. 1949;59(2):355-372. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1949.01240040360017