Why were chainsaws invented? It wasn't for cutting down trees. Here's what to know
Chainsaw accidents are not a rare occurrence. On the contrary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 36,000 people receive hospital treatment for chainsaw injuries each year.
Though accidental chainsaw injuries rarely cost someone their life, Robert Johnson of Sawinery writes that medical expenses related to chainsaws total up to $350 million annually.
With modern, advanced medical care, recovery from a chainsaw injury is possible – but what if they also used a chainsaw on you when you got to the hospital? This actually used to be a common occurrence.
Here’s the surprising origin story of the chainsaw, and how it evolved into the logging tool it is known as today.
Why were chainsaws invented?
The chainsaw was actually used in medicine before it was ever used in logging – though it wasn’t always powered by gasoline or batteries.
Scottish doctors John Aitken and James Jeffray invented the hand-cranked device in the 1780s in order to make the medical practices of “symphysiotomy and excision of diseased bone” easier, according to Scottish Medical Journal materials made available by the National Institutes of Health.
A symphysiotomy is a surgical procedure which widens the pubic symphysis joint in order to create more space to deliver an infant, according to the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. It is now widely considered to be an outdated operation, but it was used to save the life of a mother, child or both before the section became common.
Though many obstetricians pushed against Aitken’s arguments for the use of the chainsaw when facing complications in childbirth, the Scottish Medical Journal reports Jeffray’s ideas for its use in the excision of joints became accepted, especially when paired with anesthesia.
The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery reports the “flexible chain saw” was often used for amputations during the Civil War, as it caused less damage to the surrounding tissue than the more rigid bone saws available at the time.
The chainsaw we know today
A number of inventors created gasoline- or steam-powered saws with flexible chains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but according to Jim Waldrop of the British Columbia Provincial Museum, none of these early inventions were practical, as their large engines made them difficult to transport.
Canadian logger James Shand was awarded the patent for the first portable, gasoline-powered chainsaw in 1918, according to Waldrop.