"In the era preceding starter motors, car engines were ‘turned over’ manually using a handle to turn the crankshaft clockwise and overcome the inertia of the engine parts, a task requiring considerable effort. The spark which ignites the combination of petrol and air must be mechanically timed to apply downward pressure on the piston after it has passed top dead centre (TDC) so that the direction of rotation is maintained. If the ignition occurs prematurely, the piston will be forced backwards causing a powerful kickback, forcibly hyper-extending the wrist and forcing the scaphoid into the radius. The typical fracture was an intra-articular fracture of the radius, sometimes unstable 9."
"It was originally described by British surgeon Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913) and the occupational association was noted by French surgeon Just Lucas-Championnièr who named it chauffeur fracture. Chauffeur translates as "someone who warms" (the car engine). During the warm-up, the carburetor mixture was adjusted using a choke to keep the engine ticking over and the engine oil warmed and circulated."
Expected headings
"Mechanism"
"Associations"