We know, we thought it was originally invented for chopping down trees and cutting up wood also.
|Historical osteotome, a medical bone chainsaw | wikipedia|
The origin is debated, but a chainsaw-like tool was made around 1830 by the German orthopaedist
|Gigli wire saw | wikipedia|
Mechanised versions of the chain saw were developed but in the later 19th Century, it was superseded in surgery by the Gigli twisted wire saw - a flexible wire saw used by surgeons for bone cutting, mainly for amputation, where the bones have to be smoothly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.