Could Dorrance Have Imagined His Hook Would Last 112 Years?

In 1912, David W. Dorrance filed a patent for something astonishingly simple: a split hook. At the time, he was a dentist who had lost his left hand in an accident. The prosthetic options available to him were little more than decorative, clumsy devices that looked like hands but functioned poorly. They could not withstand daily work.

So, he built his own. Two steel tines, a spring, and a leather harness gave him a functional, durable grasp. It was not elegant, but it worked. By 1915, his Dorrance Artificial Limb Company was producing hooks that spread worldwide. Eventually, as the company evolved, the design became known as the Hosmer hook, and it remains one of the most widely used prosthetic devices in history.

Could Dorrance have imagined, when he first tested his handmade prototype, that 112 years later amputees would still rely on essentially the same design?

Why the Hook Endured

The longevity of the hook is partly a testament to its brilliance. It was reliable, inexpensive, and repairable. Soldiers could use it in the trenches of World War I. Farmers could use it in the fields. Machinists could wear it in the shop. It was a tool, not an ornament, and in that practicality it became indispensable.

But its endurance is also a reflection of inertia. Prosthetic innovation has been slow to reach clinics and patients. Reimbursement structures, entrenched clinical habits, and the high cost of new technology meant that the hook remained the standard by default. It was not perfect. It was simply good enough in a world without better alternatives.

Honoring Ingenuity, Not Accepting Stagnation

None of this diminishes Dorrance’s achievement. With the limited materials and tools of his time, he created something that restored function to countless amputees. That alone is a legacy most inventors could only dream of.

But it also raises a haunting question: what might Dorrance have built if he had access to today’s materials, machining, and biomechanical insights? Would he have stayed satisfied with the hook, or would he have pushed further?

A Century Later, Another Left Hand

That question feels particularly poignant for us at Marins. Our CTO and lead engineer, Darryl, is also a left-hand amputee. Like Dorrance, he lived the frustrations of outdated prosthetics. Like Dorrance, he refused to accept them.

Out of that refusal came the ProHensor®, the world’s first Voluntary Closing Auto Locking (VCAL) terminal device. It is modular, serviceable, and designed to provide strength and proprioceptive feedback that amputees have been denied for too long.

The parallel is hard to ignore. Two men, a century apart, both missing the same hand, both unwilling to settle for the limitations of their era’s prosthetics.

Carrying Legacy Forward

Dorrance achieved a kind of immortality through invention. Every time someone strapped on a hook to work, cook, or build, his mind lived on in their actions.

At Marins, we do not seek to erase that legacy. We seek to extend it. The ProHensor carries forward the spirit of utility, durability, and empowerment that Dorrance embodied, but brings it into the twenty-first century.

True homage is not leaving things as they are. It is taking the spark of ingenuity from the past and carrying it forward.

That is what Dorrance did in 1912. That is what Darryl has done in 2025. And that is the chapter we now have the privilege and responsibility to write.