Rethinking modern prostheses in Anglo-American commodity cultures, 1820–1939

218 Pages·2017·15.9 MB·English

by  Claire L. Jones (editor)

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RETHINKING MODERN PROSTHESES

IN ANGLO-A MERICAN COMMODITY
CULTURES, 1820–1 939
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Series editors
Dr Julie Anderson, Professor Walton O. Schalick, III
This new series published by Manchester University Press responds to the growing
interest in disability as a discipline worthy of historical research. The series has a broad
international historical remit, encompassing issues that include class, race, gender,
age, war, medical treatment, professionalisation, environments, work, institutions and
cultural and social aspects of disablement including representations of disabled people in
literature, film, art and the media.
Already published
Deafness, community and culture in Britain: leisure and cohesion, 1945– 95
Martin Atherton
Destigmatising mental illness? Professional politics and public education in
Britain, 1870– 1970
Vicky Long
Fools and idiots? Intellectual disability in the Middle Ages
Irina Metzler
Framing the moron: the social construction of feeble- mindedness in the
American eugenics era
Gerald V. O’Brien
Recycling the disabled: army, medicine, and modernity in WWI Germany
Heather R. Perry
Worth saving: disabled children during the Second World War
Sue Wheatcroft
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RETHINKING MODERN

PROSTHESES IN ANGLO- AMERICAN
COMMODITY CULTURES,
1820– 1939
Edited by Claire L. Jones
Manchester University Press
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Copyright © Manchester University Press 2017
While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in
individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly
or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 1 5261 0142 6 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third- party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on
such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by Out of House Publishing
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This volume is dedicated with respect, love and affection to my grandparents,
Fred and Louise Callon. They met at Anerley Deaf School, London in the
1930s and it is through them that I came to understand, appreciate and value
Deaf/ deaf history and culture.
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Contents

List of illustrations ix
Notes on contributors xi
Series editors’ foreword xv
Acknowledgements xvii
Introduction: modern prostheses in Anglo- American
commodity cultures 1
Claire L. Jones
I The commodification of hearing aids and aids to hearing 25
1 Purchase, use and adaptation: interpreting ‘patented’ aids to
the deaf in Victorian Britain 27
Graeme Gooday and Karen Sayer
2 Between cure and prosthesis: ‘good fit’ in artificial eardrums 48
Jaipreet Virdi
3 Inventing amplified telephony: the co- creation of aural
technology and disability 70
Coreen McGuire
II The commodification of artificial limbs and
associated appliances 91
4 ‘A hand for the one- handed’: prosthesis user- inventors
and the market for assistive technologies in early
nineteenth- century Britain 93
Laurel Daen
5 ‘Get the best article in the market’: prostheses for women in
nineteenth- century literature and commerce 114
Ryan Sweet
6 Itinerant manipulators and public benefactors: artificial limb
patents, medical professionalism and the moral economy in
antebellum America 137
Caroline Lieffers
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7 Separating the surgical and commercial: space, prosthetics
and the First World War 158
Julie Anderson
Select bibliography 179
Index 180