Wow...goes to show you that our ancestors were quite clever. That rachet system looks to be quite ingenious.

Wow :!: That was one REALLY hard dude.

Yeah, this guy should be given a round of applause for his manliness.

P. Cha wrote:

Wow...goes to show you that our ancestors were quite clever. That rachet system looks to be quite ingenious.

It cetainly would be handy.
It would be interesting to see a reproduction of it made, and better yet used! But I guess they'd need a hand to put it on.
But hey, it's armless to try new things.
Thumbs up! :lol:

I have a friend down south who is missing most of his left arm below the elbow. He would really dig something like this. He currently fights with both spear and sword using a special leather prosthetic that a armourer local to him made.

Groovy!

To make something like this that is functional and robust enough to hold a mace means a good deal of design talent as well as being able to make very close tolerances and gears with regular teeth: You can't have too much variation from gear tooth to gear tooth on the matching gears otherwise it would lock up or jambs.

I would think that a clock maker would have the skills and knowledge of geometry/math to figure out how to make such a hand work but only someone very rich could afford to have one made.

I just had a wow moment of my own stupidity at times. :wtf:

I'm more or less a lurker here, but I'm trying to write a historical fiction based on Götz's life. The 'duh' moment came from realizing I hadn't asked anyone here if they knew where I could find a full translation of Götz's memoirs. I found a partial translation which actually made me stop writing for want of a full translation due to the wealth of detail it contained. I'd like to keep my book as true to life as I can while making it interesting to read. It shouldn't be too hard considering the subject.


Any help would be outstanding!

Benjamin, there seems to be at least one full English translation of Herr Götz's autobiography : http://books.google.fr/books?id=2i9cAAAAMAAJ&...CCMQ6AEwAA

You can find it on sale on the internet for not too much : http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults...56&y=4

I love Götz too, tell us when your book is finished !

Fascinating subject this one.

Makes me wonder how much technology has been lost or undiscovered. Our ancesters were as intelligent as us and had time at there disposal as well, time was cheap back then.

On a tangent, is there not an old Irish legend of a king who lost his hand and had it replaced with a lifelike silver one ?

The name Nuada springs to mind, perhaps there could be an element of truth behind the story after all ?

I believe I saw a prosthetic metal arm at Burg Hornberg in Germany. I was only 11, so I can't remember if the actual arm was on display or if it was just that the knight who owned the castle had a metal arm.

You all may be interested to know that I found this page via stumbleupon. I guess this means myArmoury is getting mainstream :D

edit: Upon further research, it was the castle of Gotz von Berlichingen, the very subject of the thread. Go figure!

...perhaps there's a nugget of fact in the phrase, "he ruled them with an iron fist."

Perhaps a king or two had these very types of prosthesis.

Great article.

- W.

In the late 17th c. New France, Henri de Tonti had an artificial hand, probably of brass. I used it at times to punch opponents. He was nicknamed Iron Fist.

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&...cukahfuov0

Just imagine Gotz von Berlich and Jaime Lannister giving each other a fistbump... I am pretty sure the result would be the start of a new universe..