- Chainsaws as we know them today are used to cut down trees.
- However, power tools have a horrible history
Chainsaws are portable power tools used to cut down trees…but that wasn’t their intended use.
Users should be extremely careful, and injuries are not uncommon – with approximately 28,000 chainsaw-related incidents in the United States each year, according to the National Library of Medicine.
The power tool was used as a weapon by Leatherface in the horror film classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
And the original use of this contraption has an equally shocking history having been invented by two Scottish surgeons in 1780.
More than 36,000 people are hospitalized each year for chainsaw-related accidents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first chainsaw was created by John Aitken and James Jeffray and it was actually used to aid in childbirth.
Powered by a crank whose teeth moved along a chain, the invention was much smaller and did not look as large and scary as its modern equivalent.
Caesarean section was not common in the 18th century because it was considered too dangerous.
So when a baby was stuck or broken, doctors had to remove parts of the cartilage, flesh and bone to create space – the procedure was called “symphysiotomy”.
Surgeons used to perform the procedure using a knife, but it was a long and painful operation. Anesthesia was not invented until 1846
The original chainsaw, later transformed into an “osteotome,” allowed surgeons to expand pubic cartilage and cut diseased bones.
The original chainsaw, which was later transformed into an “osteotome,” allowed surgeons to expand pubic cartilage and cut diseased bones.
As this information circulated on social media, users were horrified by this revelation.
As this information circulated on social media, users were horrified by this revelation.
One person tweeted: “You think medicine cares about women’s pain, either historically or currently? Research what the chainsaw was originally invented for. I defy you’.
Others added “Don’t Google why the chainsaw was invented” and “Be grateful for modern medicine and if you don’t Google why the chainsaw was invented.”
Another user wrote, “I don’t think I wanted to know that,” while someone else added, “Oh my god, that’s medieval!”
