RANDOM FACT #4 - The CHAINSAW Was Originally Used in CHILDBIRTH

We know, we thought it was originally invented for chopping down trees and cutting up wood also.

Historical osteotome, a medical bone chainsaw | wikipedia

Gigli wire saw | wikipedia

The origin is debated, but a chainsaw-like tool was made around 1830 by the German orthopaedist Bernhard Heine. This instrument, the osteotome, had links of a chain carrying small cutting teeth with the edges set at an angle; the chain was moved around a guiding blade by turning the handle of a sprocket wheel. As the name implies, this was used to cut bone. The prototype of the chain saw familiar today in the timber industry was pioneered in the late 18th century by two Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, for symphysiotomy and excision of diseased bone respectively.

Mechanised versions of the chain saw were developed but in the later 19th Century, it was superseded in surgery by the Gigli twisted wire saw - a flexible wire saw used by surgeons for bone cutting, mainly for amputation, where the bones have to be smoothly cut at the level of amputation. For much of the 19th century, however, the chain saw was a useful surgical instrument.



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