People are only just discovering what chainsaws were originially used for
- Chainsaws as we know them today are used to saw through trees
- However, the power tools have a gruesome backstory
Chainsaws are portable power tools used for felling trees… but that was not their intended use.
Users must be incredibly careful, and injuries are not uncommon: according to the National Library of Medicine, there are approximately 28,000 chainsaw-related incidents in the US each year.
The motorized tool was used as a weapon by Leatherface in the horror movie classic ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’.
And the device’s original use has an equally shocking backstory after it was invented by two Scottish surgeons in 1780.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 36,000 people are treated in hospitals each year for chainsaw-related accidents.
The first chainsaw was created by John Aitken and James Jeffray and was actually used to assist childbirth.
Powered by a hand crank with teeth moving along a chain, the invention was a lot smaller and didn’t look as big and scary as the modern equivalent.
The caesarean section was not common in the 18th century because it was considered too dangerous.
So if a baby became stuck or broken, doctors had to remove parts of the cartilage, flesh and bone to create space – the procedure was called a ‘symphysiotomy’.
Surgeons used to perform the procedure with a knife, but this was a lengthy and painful operation. Anesthesia was not invented until 1846
The original chainsaw, later developed into the ‘osteotome’, allowed surgeons to widen pubic cartilage and cut away diseased bone.
The original chainsaw, later developed into the ‘osteotome’, allowed surgeons to widen pubic cartilage and cut away diseased bone
As this information circulated on social media, users were shocked by the revelation.
As this information circulated on social media, users were shocked by the revelation.
One person tweeted: “Do you think medicine cares about women’s pain, historically or now? Look up what the chainsaw was originally invented for. I dare you’.
Others added: “Don’t look up why the chainsaw was invented” and “Be thankful 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 this,’ while someone else added: ‘Oh my God, that’s medieval!’