Essentially an armored glove, converting the operator's hand into a pair of pliers.
Publication number US1198611 A
Publication type Grant
Publication date Sep 19, 1916
Filing date Feb 11, 1916
Priority date Feb 11, 1916
Inventors William S Boyd
Original Assignee William S Boyd
This invention relates to submarine armor for the use of divers, and particularly to that class of armor which is composed of sections of rigid material united by watertight joints, and especially to those portions of the armor adapted to inclose and protect the hand of the operator.
An example of the kind of armor referred to is to be found in Letters Patent of the United States No. 989,530, issued April 11th, 1911, to C. E. MacDuffee, and the invention which is the subject matter of this application may be considered in a general sense as an improvement upon the device described in that patent. In that device, the means provided for the operator to employ in grasping an object consists of a pair of tongs terminating in inwardly turned hook members projecting from a sleeve and adapted to be oscillated on a common pivot by means of a longitudinal handle passing through the end of and into the sleeve and adapted to be moved longitudinally by the hand of the operator.
The object of the present invention is to provide an armor of the general character described with a hand section which will permit the operator to use his hands in a natural, though limited, manner; will enable him to grasp objects over a much wider area than can be done through the use of opposing tong points, and will also enable him to some extent to utilize his sense of feeling when the members of the hand section are brought in contact with other objects.
Above: Macduffee's Submarine Armor as mentioned in Boyd's patent.
The German company NEUFELDT and KUHNKE patented and used as similar hand to Boyd's in 1917. German patent No. 301434C.
See other early Underwater Robots here.