[04 commemorative]

Originally Posted by slewfoot

Who Invented the Chainsaw?

While Andreas Stihl of the Stihl company invented the modern chainsaw in 1926, he doesn’t get the credit for developing the first-ever chainsaw. That accolade goes to Dr. John Aitken and Dr. James Jeffray in the 1780s.

While Dr. Aitken and Dr. Jeffray’s chainsaw was a much smaller hand-powered chainsaw, it had all the same elements that you can find in a modern chainsaw.

It had a chain and small teeth on the blade, and it rotated in the exact same way that a modern chainsaw does. But while people use modern chainsaws almost exclusively for cutting timber, these first chainsaws never made it near wood. Instead, doctors used them during childbirth!

I read it was used for amputations