BODY LITTER

DATE - 1943

In 1942, the Eameses pondered how molded plywood could address a serious problem the Medical Corps was struggling to solve: The standard metal splints used to brace wounded World War II servicemen were causing further injuries due to the vibrations in the metal during transport. Within one year, Charles and Ray produced their first Molded Plywood Splint using a wood-bending contraption they invented known as the Kazam! machine.

Additional Information

The design led to other wartime molded-plywood work as well, including an airplane fuselage, airplane stabilizer tail, an arm splint, a body litter, and a pilot seat.  Like the molded plywood arm splint, the Eameses designed and prototyped the body litter for the U.S. Navy that never went into production.

They worked on this design in 1943, when the production of their Eames Molded Plywood Leg Splint was in full swing. By the War’s end, they had shipped the Navy over 150,000 splints in either mahogany or birch veneer.

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