WEBVTT - The Invention of the Chainsaw, Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:15.240 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.000 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.000 we're back with part two of our series on the 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:22.880 invention of the chainsaw. And now last time I think 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.440 we left off after we've been talking about the reasoning 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.080 behind chains as a as a cutting surface rather than 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:32.600 just a solid blade or even as opposed to a 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.400 giant circular saws. But this time we wanted to come 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:37.360 back and talk a little bit more about the early 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:40.240 history of power saws leading up to the modern chainsaw, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:47.199 as well as some rather rather distressing medical digressions. Well, 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.080 before we get into the medical stuff, I want to 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.559 come back to something I mentioned in passing. In the 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.680 last episode, I mentioned how I had I was vaguely 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.720 familiar with stuff like the misery whip and other uh 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.480 you a lumberjacking techniques and technologies based on a cartoon 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:06.840 that I saw when I was a kid, or and 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.039 probably saw more than once, you know, probably had on 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.400 a VHS tape or something. Um I described it and 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.679 our producer Seth, who is well versed in the cartoon universe. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:18.880 He told me, oh, well that I think the one 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.800 you're talking about is nineteen fifty five. Up a Tree. Uh. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.800 This is a Disney short featuring Donald Duck as well 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:29.560 as Chip and Dale. And this is absolutely it. This 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.280 is the one with scenes of you know, Donald is 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.720 chasing the chip monks around trying to cut down trees. 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.960 They're all sorts of weird mishaps with saws. Do you 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.720 remember this one at all, Joe, certainly, not in any detail, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:43.880 not in any more than the sort of images you 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:46.560 described last time. Well, I'm going to cut right to 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.840 the end and see if this rings a bell. This 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.040 is the last two sentences from the Wikipedia summary for 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.440 Up a Tree, from quote all Donald can do is 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.800 watch with day's grief as his home is rocketed into 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:04.600 the hair and explodes three times. Chippendale pretend to comfort Donald, 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:07.480 then proceed to roll in the ground and laugh hysterically. 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.560 Chippendale the sociopaths. They are bad friends. Granted, you know, 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:15.800 Donald did a lot of bad things before that, so 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:17.919 he was very much getting his come upance. But you've 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.519 taken out of contacts. That sounds that sounds pretty rough. 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:22.440 No one should have to watch their home explode three 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.720 times and then be brutally mocked by chipmunks. Yeah. Now, wait, 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:29.720 is this before Chippendale wherever rescue rangers. I thought they 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.440 would need to be rescuing people whose house that was 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.040 decades later. That was like a nineties thing, right, Okay, 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:38.720 this was this was the back in the fifties when 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.560 it was just all about you know, in a way, 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:44.720 there was kind of a a very shallow environmental message here, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.600 uh that Donald is bad for going after their habitat 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.640 and distressing their home, and Chippendale are good for wanting 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.520 to maintain the pristine nature of their natural environment. The 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:59.840 term is tree poaching. Donald was tree poaching also, he 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:01.920 was I think he was being rather unsafe with some 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.840 of the saws. M I made that up, by the way, there, 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.960 I've never heard of tree poaching. Well, I mean it is. 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.639 You could certainly get into trouble for cutting, for felling 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.520 trees on someone else's land. That would be a type 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:21.680 of poaching, right, especially if they're full of sentien chipmunks. Uh, okay, Okay. 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.240 So the next thing that I think we have to 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:28.120 talk about in the history of the chainsaw is uh 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.800 that we've been focused on the road leading to power 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.000 chainsaws for logging and construction. But you may well have 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.160 seen a sort of viral dig you know, article floating 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:41.160 around a couple of years ago, talking about how the 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:46.120 original invention of the chainsaw was as a medical device, 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.280 invented for use in childbirth. Now, one of one of 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:53.320 the really surprising things is that, in one sense this 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:56.880 is true. In the eighteenth century there was such a 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:00.960 thing as the obstetric chainsaw. However, as you might guess 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.000 from the period, one big difference is that this was 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.400 not a motorized device, which maybe makes this discovery even 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.440 more alarming. Yeah, because when you hear the words medical 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.280 chain saw, it sounds ridiculous and potentially grotesque, or it 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:19.400 sounds like the sort of futurist extrapolation you find in 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.920 sci fi, where you know, sometimes it will be like 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.800 in the future, chainsaws will be so small they can 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:28.760 be used for surgical procedures. You know. Where it's where 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.080 you're like, actually that that technology was not headed that direction, 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:34.839 sci fi author, I'm not sure why you chose to 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.800 focus on that, um, but you you you encounter that 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:39.880 sort of thing in science fiction from time to Yeah, well, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.440 sometimes in sci fi medicine, you just get little like wands, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.320 little magic wands, Like one magic wand just opens the 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.560 body up for whatever kind of procedure, and then you 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.600 touch the body with another glowing wand and it instantly heals. Yeah, 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.240 like they basically had that technology and like Star Trek 0:04:55.279 --> 0:05:01.200 next generation. Uh oh yeah, that's right, Ason X. Here's 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.520 a quick horror question for you, Joe. You're you're far 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.720 better versed in the the Friday world here at the 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.520 film universe. Did Jason Voorhees ever picked up a chainsaw? 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.839 Or did he just know that that would be gimmick infringement, 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:17.880 that that that was let to face his thing and 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:20.080 he should back off. I believe this is a point 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.240 a lot of people are confused on. As far as 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:25.120 I know, Jason has never wielded a chainsaw. The closest 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:29.279 he ever gets is, I believe in Friday thirteen, part seven, 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.120 which is the one when which he battles a girl 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.120 with psychic powers. Uh and uh so that one's uh 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.480 quite funny and a lot of fun. But in that 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.960 one he does use a power saw, but it is 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:46.040 not a chainsaw. It is a motor driven hedge trimmer 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.800 with a circular saw at the end of a long pole. Uh. 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:54.159 And he sticks it right into Terry Kaiser's abdomen. Okay, 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:57.000 so that that that sounds right. He knew better. He 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.760 knows better than to pick up the chainsaw that's not his. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.839 He can have literally any other tool, but not the chainsaw. 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.320 Right he he doesn't want to get into legal trouble. R. Plus, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.280 he's very much a stealth stalker type character, right right, 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.320 except I guess this thing does make noise. I mean, 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.279 Jason generally does not go for for power tools. He 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.120 prefers the classic, the manual implements, the machete, the big 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:24.320 old steak or spike. That's his territory, simple melee weapons. Yeah, alright, 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:28.480 Well getting back to medical chainsaws then, Um, the the 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.960 paper we were looking at for this came from uh 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.080 Skipping at all Uh and it was It's titled the 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:39.800 Chainsaw a Scottish Invention from the Scottish Medical Journal. Uh. 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.880 This is uh what forty nine number two. This is 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.400 from two thousand and four. So it's pointed out by 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.920 Skipping at all in in in this paper. Uh. The 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.479 interesting thing is that we have two different Scottish inventors 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:57.000 in the eighteenth century who may have independently come up 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.839 with the concept of a medical chainsaw off sorts, and 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.359 we do have to have that caveat of sorts, and 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.520 we're gonna get to something that more closely resembles what 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:09.120 we might or at least checks off more of the 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.080 boxes for what we think of as a chainsaw. Now 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.119 again we're not talking about tiny gas powered chainsaws. In fact, 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:19.280 we're originally talking about a non mechanical invention. We're talking 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:24.280 about a quote chain hand saw, a fine serrated link 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:29.600 chain which cut on the concave side. So this was handheld, 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.600 hand powered you pull it back and forth, very much 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.600 in common with some of those chain based cutting techniques 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.720 that we were talking about in the first episode when 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.240 you say, yeah, like one of the power saw design 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.320 and again this would not be powered. But one of 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.400 the power saw designs we talked about in the previous 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:49.080 episode was one where a tree would be cut down 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.480 with a cutting chain, but the chain did not revolve 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.080 around a fixed bar. Rather, the chain rotated freely around 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.960 the tree trunk to just saw right through it. Yeah. 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.520 So the first of these inventions was devised in the 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:06.120 early seventeen eighties by Scottish surgeon surgeon John Aitkin Uh. 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.280 It was intended for use in childbirth, specifically for a 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:14.840 syenthusiastomy in which the cartilage of the pubic synthesis is 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:20.640 divided to widen the pelvis, allowing childbirth. UM. Now, this 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:25.960 particular saw design UM was considered a promising method as 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.080 it avoided potential damage to surrounding tissues if a scalpel 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.640 was used. UM. But it was seventeen ninety before the 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:38.000 saw was produced and as this paper explains, it was 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.440 never really widely picked up. Okay, so that's one of 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.920 the designs. The second was devised by Scottish surgeon James Jeffrey, 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:48.880 is a means of removing disease joints with having without 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.440 having to result to full limb removal. And one of 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:53.960 the notable things about this saw Jeffrey saw is that 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.840 it actually did see a fair amount of use. It 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.480 was a notable improvement over the stiff bone saw and 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:04.200 a version was even used in neurosurgery and surgery. And 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.880 indeed we did get to a mechanized version of this. 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.160 So we went from something that again is like a 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.960 chain that you pull back and forth to cut, and 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:14.839 then you end up with this thing that was called 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.320 an osteo tom. This was a hand cranked version of 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.719 this that essentially had an infinite chain loop on it. 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.160 You'd crank it and you would have it essentially would 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.080 function like a little chainsaw. I mean you look at 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.480 a picture of it and it looks like some sort 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:34.360 of like a weird handheld steampunk uh chainsaw dagger. One 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.720 of the interesting things discussed in this Scottish Medical Journal 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.520 paper is the idea that these chains for trying to 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.640 cut through bone with this little damage to the surrounding 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:49.480 tissue as possible were uh at least partially inspired by 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.120 looking at watch chains from watches of the eighteenth century. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.640 Obviously these would be bigger than those though. Yeah, and 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.600 and another big thing about this, uh, this innovation and 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.400 ultimately this whole like this whole area of innovation, is 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.120 that you want to move towards precision, but you you 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.520 also want speed. Uh you're still performing. Um, you know, 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.960 so either either you're performing you know, in some cases 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.079 you should be still would be talking about full limb removal, 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.120 but otherwise you're you're trying to get in there and 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.760 removed diseased and damaged pieces, and you want to get 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:23.920 in and get out as quickly as possible, but also 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.960 as precisely as possible. Yeah, And in the case of 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.040 this obstetric procedure that would cut through part of the 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.559 pelvis in order in order to widen the passage for childbirth, 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.760 the symphysiotomy procedure from the eighteenth century. There was a 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.160 pressure leading to this, which is that, of course, you know, 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:43.760 there was a lot of mortality during childbirth at the time, 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:47.640 and uh, the process of Cesyrian section at the time 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.560 also had a high mortality rate for myers, and so 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.920 this was an alternative that was seen as something that 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.400 could possibly lead to better outcomes in saving the life 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:58.760 of both the mother and the child during delivery. But 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:00.840 again that one didn't really pick up so much, but 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.400 the osteotome did. But as luck would have it, it 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:07.720 was superseded by the giggly twisted wire saw in the 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.880 late nineteenth century. So, uh, you know, even though the 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.000 osteotome was was pretty advanced there for a minute, um, 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.800 it was beat in the race by this other bit 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.160 of sawing technology, the giggly twisted wire saw. It was 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.439 ultimately cheaper, and it avoided the two main issues with 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.679 the chainsaw, and that is breakage and the chain getting 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.720 stuck in the bone. The giggly twisted wire a saw 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:33.600 was narrower and it provided a quicker cut and if 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:35.640 the wire was damaged, it was easy to pull out 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:37.680 and then you could just use a fresh length of 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:40.760 the wire. So there you go, early chainsaws in eighteenth 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.320 century medicine. Though again we must stress not not motorized chainsaws, 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:48.280 but yeah, using chains for cutting bone. It does, in 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:51.760 fact go back to multiple inventions from the eighteenth century. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.600 I have to say that the just the just getting 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:58.079 back to like the frightening names of things. The giggly 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:02.920 twisted wire saw also sounds kind of terrifying um And 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.640 maybe it's because giggly also sounds a little bit like giggles. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.439 It sounds a little mab. It makes me think of 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.280 Dr giggles. Uh. I'm not sure how this guy would 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.920 have pronounced it. I think the guys that the wire 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.400 saw was named after was Leonardo Giggli or this could 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.720 be Gigli or because remember there was that movie with 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.400 like Ben Affleck and whoever in it it was, It 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:26.880 was spelled the same way, and that one was called Gelie. 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.199 But I don't know, I didn't see that when I 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.760 saw Dr Giggles instead. Well, you probably invested your time 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.679 more wisely. I don't know, arguable, but I was looking 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:39.480 that up. And of course Larry Drake was was great 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.040 in that. Larry greg was Drake always made for a 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.200 nice villain. But I was I had in my mind 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:47.719 that like the character's name was Giggles, Like he was 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.280 Dr Giggles, but now he's Dr Evan Rindle, Like that's 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.400 not scary. Why why aren't they call him Dr Giggles 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.320 that this year just said his name is Dr Giggles. 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.280 We would have bought it. This is Steven Giggles. Yes, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:02.920 Stephen Ill House Giggles. I mean it's a horror movie. 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:04.959 It's like you can get lean into it. I mean, 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.600 just ask um, ask Cronenberg. You know you need to 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.360 actually make the names a little bit removed from reality. Yeah. 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.440 I think Dickens had the right philosophy for naming characters. 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.720 Just go full idiophones, Like the character's name should sound 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:25.600 like what they do. Mr Jaggers, Dr Giggles. It's it's 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.280 it's all right there it's just waiting for you. But 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.760 I guess we should come back to the topic of 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.640 of early power saws leading up to the chainsaw in 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:37.480 logging itself, in in logging and woodworking. So there was 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.840 a source I mentioned in the previous episode that I 0:13:39.880 --> 0:13:41.839 just want to mention again because it's a good one 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:43.640 and I've referred to it a number of times here. 0:13:44.200 --> 0:13:47.600 This is a book called Chainsaws, a History by David 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.120 Lee with Mike Acres uh And as I mentioned in 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.720 the last episode, this is a very photography focused book. 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:57.439 It's just lots and lots of beautiful photographs of gorgeous, 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:01.800 you know, nasty looking chainsaw paws and in various poses, 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.000 sitting on a log, sitting in a workshop, kind of 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:08.720 rusty looking, maybe kind of threatening somehow, I don't know, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.240 even though nobody's wielding it. It's full of vibes. But 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.960 of course, like the title would imply, this book does 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.800 trace a lot about the early history of chainsaws and 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.360 how we got to the first models that people today 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.040 would recognize as a chainsaw. You look at them and say, yeah, 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.280 that's what a chainsaw is. So I think in this uh, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.600 in this story, we left off somewhere around the World 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.360 War One era. And uh, and I guess that's where 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:35.680 we'll pick up. Lee writes about this period, noting that 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.320 there was one thing during this era that was an 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.760 attempt at mechanized solutions in logging that actually did not 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:47.160 involve a cutting chain, but rather a wire. So this 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.360 was something he calls the wire rope tree feller. Uh. 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.560 And again it might not count as a saw since 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.160 it doesn't have teeth. Instead, the idea was just to 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:00.800 use rapidly moving metal wires to cut own trees by 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.680 pure friction, as the wire was sort of dragged across 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.440 the wood surface. Now, you can probably get some obvious 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:08.960 disadvantages there. It's not going to be nearly as as 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.200 good at cutting through the tree, But I mean, I 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.040 don't know, maybe there's some trade off in that you 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.680 wouldn't have to bother with sharpening it. You just realize, Okay, 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.320 we're just gonna we're just gonna rub this wire all 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.480 the hell. Yeah, well that's what I'd be afraid of. 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.160 That wire gets all rubbed the hell and then what 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.400 if it snaps. I mean, you have a cable like 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.360 that snapping. Uh, It sounds like a very dangerous situation. Yeah, 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.200 you wouldn't want to be standing near it. And here's 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.120 another interesting idea that was apparently floated at some point. 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:38.640 How about a metal wire heated by electricity. Okay, you 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.840 use the new technology of electricity to get that wire 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.240 red hot and then just let it burn right through 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:46.760 the wood as you're sliding it across the trunk. Well, 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.600 that does sound like typical um, like electrical age enthusiasm. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:54.040 What can't electricity do for us? Um? But yeah, that 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.760 sounds awful because you're potentially just catching the trees on 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:58.840 fire at that point. And there are some other things 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.320 he mentioned there. There was something called a power feller, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.640 which looks like it's sort of just a a saw 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:06.680 that swings in an arc and and gradually cuts its 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.160 way through a tree. So I think this would be 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:11.960 one with a fixed blade, and then another one that 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:14.400 had just a bunch of augers that were like drill 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:17.080 or bore holes down at the tree at the at 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.160 the ground level, so it would fall over and not 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.320 even really leave a stump. But Lee highlights a big 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.600 problem with almost all of these existing designs, which is 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.320 that they were in reality no more efficient or not 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.120 much more efficient than a couple of experienced sawyers with 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.160 a misery whip. I mean, as grueling as the labor was. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.160 You know, it's hard work out there in the forest 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.720 with the two main cross cut saw working on a redwood. 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.320 Uh this was a skill that people had developed and 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.840 they'd gotten really good and fast at it. And of course, 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:51.040 human bodies and human muscles are very versatile and bulky 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.240 machines of this period are not very versatile. Uh So 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.200 it might, you know, you might have a machine that 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.000 can cut through a tree faster than a human or 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.800 maybe not even and maybe that might not even be true. 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:03.840 But even if it can, might require a lot of 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.000 set up. It might have a lot of bulky equipment. 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.199 You gotta move around and all that. And a lot 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.719 of loggers were ultimately like, yeah, we we we've got 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:12.800 our methods and they work just fine, so we'll stick 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.919 with those. But nevertheless, there were some, uh some of 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.680 these powered saws in the early twentieth century. One thing 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.640 that's kind of interesting is that it seems like even 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.359 after the creation of the gas engine, and even after 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.280 some chainsaw prototypes had been proposed, a lot of logging 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.280 ventures still seem to prefer huge gas powered drag saws, 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.480 these ones with a solid blade that would just be 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.480 working back and forth powered by a motor. And I 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.679 think the idea is that the big drag saw is 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.840 uh is just rugged, it's dependable, it's it's you know, 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:47.800 you know what you're getting there. It's like it has 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.880 less moving parts and less to get broken up than 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.639 than a chainsaw does. But at the same time, the 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:57.320 chainsaw has its own advantages. It's lighter, it's smaller, it's 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.159 faster at cutting, especially once you have some revolutions that 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.040 would come later in changes to the cutting surface, so 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.520 changes to the teeth on the chain, and changes to 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.160 the power source. But so, how do you get from 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.960 this era where where largely the misery whip and then 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.040 big old drag saws are still very popular, say in 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.520 the twenties through the fifties, to the modern chainsaw era 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.119 that we know and love today. Well. Lee writes that 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.520 one of the first chainsaws made for forestry was a 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.600 device called the Sector, which was invented by A. V. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:36.400 Westfeldt in Sweden in nineteen nineteen. Now they're still some 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:38.119 ways that this is not going to be much like 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.120 a chainsaw, that you would recognize today. For one thing, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.200 this model still separated the saw component from its power source. 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:47.920 And the other thing is its shape. This is not 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.720 like the chainsaws you're picturing that have a long bar 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:53.600 with a chain that rotates around them. This one has 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.000 a weird wishbone shape. So you've got to imagine a 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.400 handle like on a shovel. But then that shove handle 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.240 splits into a y fork like a you know, y 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.000 peeler that you peel a potato with. And then at 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.480 the two ends of the y fork are powered rollers 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.240 that quickly rotate a cutting chain. And the rollers are 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:17.719 powered by an outboard motor that is connected via a 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.159 drive shaft that looks like this short thick tube. So 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.840 you've got an outboard motor and then that's got a 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.360 drive shaft leading to this y shaped thing that's got 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.160 a shovel handle on the end, and uh, and then 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.120 you would use that to sort of I guess poke 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.720 the peeler end, the y end at the tree where 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.879 the chain would cut it. I'm looking at a picture 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:39.720 of it now, and this is the most one of 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.399 the most incomprehensible inventions I've ever looked at, Like it's 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:48.879 just it almost makes no sense that it looks like 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.160 the sort of thing where leather Face or Jason were 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:52.920 to show up with it, you would just be like, no, 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.639 go home, go home. Yeah yeah, laugh at leather Face. 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:58.879 And then he gets all sad and the sad music 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.439 plays and he walks off, hang in his head and 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.920 he need a friend, he needs some family members with him. 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.359 Looks like to carry this thing. Yeah, apparently that was 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.800 one of the things that really interfered with pickup of 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.040 the sector because the separate outboard motor made this model 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.080 quite difficult to use. Like any you want to reposition it, 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.359 you might have to reposition the two parts, and so 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.760 it just looks like a real pain. But you can 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.000 see the beginning here. You can see how okay, once 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:29.600 you have this device. Uh, if you were to refine 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.080 this quite a bit, we could move towards something more 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.159 like what we'd imagine a chainsaw being. Now. Like a 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.280 lot of the things we talk about on this show, Uh, 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.360 it's one of those inventions that comes about by iteration 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.000 and combination, So it is hard to identify a single 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.680 inventor or moment of invention for the chainsaw. Instead, it's 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.000 like a lot of things kind of changing over time 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.280 to look more and more like what we consider a 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.520 chainsaw today. Uh And it's a process that goes roughly 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.400 from the mid nineteenth cents until about nineteen twenty, by 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:04.760 which time we finally start to get stuff that looks 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.840 like a modern chainsaw. And one of the first commercially 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:11.320 successful chainsaws of this form we would recognize today is 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.760 the Wolf. It's just serendipity that they have these great names, 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.719 because this wasn't like a brand name somebody came up with. 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.960 It was actually a dude's name. This was Yeah, this 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.960 was a machine produced by a firm founded in nineteen 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:31.439 twenty by an American engineer named Charles Wolf. Wolf was 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.639 born in eighteen seventy one. I've seen a claim a 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:38.000 couple of places that Wolf was involved in the creation 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:40.919