When you see a chain saw hacking down a tree diagram , the thought probably furthest from your idea is " I reckon that would work well for childbirth " . Well , get quick to intend that evermore , because it turn out that chainsaws were truly first project for whoop forth at genitals , before being applied to oak .

Chainsaws and childbirth

The rumors on societal media are true : the chainsaw was originally manufacture as a " cock " to help childbirth .

It was in an cognitive operation known as a symphysiotomy , a hazardous and grossly outdated surgical process in which the gristle between the left and correct pelvic bone was severed , widening the pelvis and allowing childbirth .

Childbirth may not always be well-heeled today , but in a time before nitrous oxide , sanitisation , and our good friend plenteous amounts of morphine , it was significantly bad . The first written record we have of a successful cesarian segment ( cytosine - section ) comes fromSwitzerland in the 1500s , performed by a professional moo-cow - castrator on his wife . According to the account   – write 82 years later and dispute by some historian   – the mother and child survived , with the baby living to be 77 years honest-to-god .

The first put out account of ampere-second - sections in the US meanwhile is far more horrific . In an 1830 variant of the Western Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences , Dr John L. Richmond describe the case of adifficult nascence during a violent storm .

After many hours , with labor failing to progress , the doctor believed the fair sex ’s aliveness to be in grave danger and “ feeling a deep and solemn gumption of my responsibility , with only a case of unwashed sac instruments , about one o’clock that night , I commenced the Caesarean Section . "

Using the blade of a crooked pair of scissors grip , he cut down into the mother and attempt to remove the fetus . However , " as it was uncommonly large , and the female parent very fat , and have no assistance , I found this part of my mathematical operation more hard than I had forebode , " he write . With the female parent in too much agony , he decide that " a childless mother was better than a motherless child " and set about save the mother and take out the foetus .

This is all to instance that before   antiseptic and   anesthetics   in medicine , nose candy - sections were extremely high - peril and thus rare .

Why chainsaws were invented

Far more common , from 1597 until when C - section became safe , was a surgical procedure known as a symphysiotomy , in which the pubic symphysis – a joint made of cartilage above the vulva – is cut to widen the pelvis and make childbirth go more smoothly .

Like all operative procedures of the time , it was n’t without risk , and speed was of the essence . The less time spend operating , the less likely the patient role would go into shock or develop a deadly infection .

In the previous 18th one C , two Scots doctors , John Aitken and James Jeffray , come up with a solution for getting the job done much more quick and efficiently : an actual chain saw for the jetty . The world ’s first chain saw was a flexible sawbased on a vigil chainwith tooth that were act around with a hand crank .

Now , rather than look down and see a doctor cut away at your pelvis , you could look down and see the far more reassuring sight of a medico furiously cranking a chainsaw like they were sharpening a pencil .

The sincerely horrific part of this is that somebody going to town on your nether regions with a chainsaw was actually a vast improvement . The gimmick , finallyproduced in   1806 , went on to be used for removing diseased joint and was eventually mechanized .

It was n’t until 1905 that somebody thought of this horror equipment anddecided to practice it to trees , revolutionizing the log diligence with its efficiency and power .

If you ’re in the mode for more chainsaw trivium , check out theworld ’s largest chain saw . Big Gus , built by Moran Iron Works in Michigan , holds the phonograph recording at a massive 6.98 meters ( 22 foot 11 inches ) long . It ’s fully running – but thankfully , it ’s only used for cutting inanimate object , not people .