18 Facts About Caroline Eichler

Caroline Eichler was the first woman in Prussia to receive a patent and was the inventor of the first practical modern hand prosthesis.

Caroline Eichler was born in 1808 or 1809, presumably in Nordhausen or Berlin, as the third daughter of painter Johann Gottlieb Eichler.

Around 1826 Eichler was working as a nanny and later worked as a nurse.

In 1832, Caroline Eichler designed and constructed a prosthetic leg with a knee joint, for which she received a 10-year patent on 23 November 1833, the first woman in Prussia to receive a patent.

Caroline Eichler continued her prosthesis development, creating another one for an artificial hand, for which she received a Prussian patent on 24 November 1836.

Caroline Eichler then built a trade in Berlin by manufacturing prostheses.

On 30 October 1837, Caroline Eichler married a man seven years her junior, the mechanic Friedrich Eduard Carl Krause from Bielefeld.

The leg prosthesis developed by Caroline Eichler featured several advances over competing designs from that time.

Caroline Eichler's construction consisted of a tinplate, brass shaft for the leg's stump, a hollow lower leg made of linden, willow or poplar wood glued over with canvas, and a foot with two parts, which were made of wood, all attached to the jointed leg piece.

In contrast, Caroline Eichler designed her prosthetic to fit on the stump after it was tightly wrapped with bandages and then a padded leather funnel.

Caroline Eichler's design allowed the knee joint to work without a locking device.

Caroline Eichler's mechanism allowed the knee to bend while walking, and the springs brought the leg back to its extended starting position when it was lifted.

Caroline Eichler favorably compared the amputee's effort required to walk with her prosthesis to that of a toddler learning to walk or someone learning to dance.

Caroline Eichler said crutches were not necessary with her design as only a walking stick was required, and after a training period of one to two weeks, one would be able to walk on paved and unpaved floors and even climb stairs without using even a stick.

Caroline Eichler received recommendations from numerous doctors, including those on the General Staff, Johann Wilhelm von Wiebel and Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach, who was the head of surgery at the Charite Hospital in Berlin.

Caroline Eichler built on progress made around 1812 by the Berlin dentist Peter Baliff for his design of a hand prosthesis.

Caroline Eichler's model adopted design features from the Iron Hand: the wrist could bend at the wrist and a radial bearing made it possible to passively rotate the hand in relation to the forearm shaft.

The nickel silver used by Caroline Eichler remained the standard material for hand prostheses into the 20th century.