Leg splint

In 1941, husband-and-wife designers Charles and Ray Eames applied their early plywood-molding technology to the military’s need for a better leg splint. The U.S. Navy accepted their prototype, and Evans Products made more than 150, 000 leg splints between 1943 and 1945. Produced by gluing layers of plywood veneer together, then shaping them with heat and pressure in a mold based on Charles’s leg, the life-saving devices were the Eames’ first mass-produced success. They would continue to unite economy with quality and modernity, experimenting with inexpensive new materials to create forms for mass production, for the rest of their careers.