(C) Copyright Jacques Monestier

Jacques Monestier carried out an experimental research programme on 20 amputees for over 30 years. He developed a prehensile prosthetic hand for body powered arms. That prosthetic hand would use the same basic principle as a human hand: the fingers are made of three articulated phalanges each. On the contrary, the thumb does not move and is opposite the indes finger.

This is the second prosthetic hand ever that really defines elegance and while the Becker hand approaches elegance and coolness, the Monestier-Lescoeur hand is just beautiful. It also contains the silence, calm and immediacy of a body powered hand that the myoelectric setups with buzzing motors do not have. No Touchbionics’ iLimb, no Otto Bock’s Michelangelo hand and certainly none of the bionic research hand prototypes come even close in terms of elegance. This is not a gadget, it’s a piece of lovingly made art. And the difference I believe that has in terms of wearing it, that difference is huge. Already the Becker hand makes a huge difference.

Patents to read and study:

US4685929

@misc{monestier1987total,
title={Total hand prostheses},
author={Monestier, J.},
url={https://www.google.ch/patents/US4685929},
year={1987},
month=aug # “~11”,
publisher={Google Patents},
note={US Patent 4,685,929}
}

DE2433710a1

@misc{monestier1975prothese,
title={Prothese, insbesondere armprothese},
author={Monestier, J.},
url={https://www.google.com/patents/DE2433710A1?cl=ar},
year={1975},
month=jan # “~30”,
publisher={Google Patents},
note={DE Patent App. DE19,742,433,710}
}

Click your way through to the videos and pictures on his website.