A chainsaw is a compact gasoline, electric, or battery-powered machine that makes cuts using a set of teeth fastened to a revolving chain that is moved along a guide bar. It is used for different tasks such as cutting down trees, firewood harvesting, cutting branches, bucking, and cutting a patch of trees during wildfires. Specially designed chainsaws are used during building projects and construction to cut through concrete. Similarly, specialized chainsaws are made to chop ice. Chainsaws are used to sculpt and shape foliage and vegetation.
Now, chainsaws are only used for manual labor jobs involving cutting and seeing through tough things. But the origins of chainsaw are totally different than its uses now. The original use case of this artificial machine was to assist during birth. Though it sounds morbid, the original chainsaw is much tamer-looking compared to today’s counterparts. They were much smaller and more compact than the chainsaws of today.
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Birth Before C-Section
Before the discovery and advent of C-Section, the only method of delivering kids was through normal delivery using manual pushing through the birth canal. If the baby was stuck or the baby was breech, that means the baby’s feet faced the vagina, and it was very difficult to deliver babies safely. Also, the use of anesthesia was still not popular.
In case the baby would be stuck, the doctors had to perform a procedure called symphysiotomy. In this operation, the doctors had to cut through a part of the pelvic bone and cartilage to make room for the baby. This procedure is not foolproof though. This was a very messy process and ladies used to lose an immense amount of blood. This also led to increased mortality rates among infants and new mothers. The process was also very painful and time-consuming.
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What Happened After The Chainsaw Invention?
The medical-grade chainsaw was invented by two Scottish doctors named James Jeffray and John Aitkins in the 1780s. John Aitken was a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, whereas James Jeffray was a chair of the Botany and Anatomy dept. in Glasgow University. It had tiny teeth on an oval-wound chain and was operated by a hand crank. It resembled a contemporary kitchen knife.
This chainsaw ensured the removal of pelvic bone was easier and less time-consuming. The chainsaw was also later mechanized in the late 19th century for better performance. While most obstetricians found symphysiotomy to be excessively complicated, Jeffray’s theories on the removal of the ends of bones were more widely accepted, especially with the widespread use of anesthetics. The chain saw served as a valuable surgical tool for most of the 19th century, but in 1894 it was replaced by the Gigli twisted-wire saw, which was far less expensive to produce and provided a quicker, narrower cut without running the danger of breaking and being stuck in the bone.
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