Circular
Saw Has Long History
What
workshop or contractor’s tool box
would be complete without a circular saw? The
history of these saws can be traced to 1777 when
Samuel Miller invented the first spinning saw
blade in England. These early circular saws were
used in sawmills and used to cut lumber. It took
more than 150 years and the development of electricity
as a practical power source before someone would
come up with the idea for a portable saw.
Raymond
Dewalt devised the first radial arm saw in
1922, using a circular saw blade. This dewalt
circular saw wasn’t portable, but
it was certainly more versatile than the conventional
saws of the day. Dewalt developed this saw, which
could perform a number of operations easily by
moving or rotating the motor and saw blade which
were suspended on an overhead arm, as a labor
saving device. He formed a company to produce
and sell his invention two years later.
The
John Barnes Circular Saw Table Used Foot Power
The
circular saw table was being used long before
Raymond Dewalt came up with his radial arm
saw design. One of these saws was the treadle-powered
circular table saw produced by the W.R. & John
Barnes Company of Rockford, Illinois, as early
as 1878. In those years Barnes was a strong believer
in using foot power to power woodworking machines.
Similar to the sewing machines of that era, the
Barnes Company woodworking machines were operated
by pumping a treadle mounted beneath the table
of the machine.
Inventor
Art Emmons came up with the idea of a portable
circular saw in 1929. The porter cable circular
saw used a helical drive with an electric motor
packaged into a compact and lightweight unit
that was easily portable. Now, woodworkers
and carpenters could easily take the saw to
the work rather than take the work to the saw.
This was a tremendous development and was just
one of the innovative tools that helped make
the Porter Cable company one of the leaders
in power tools. Emmons’ design is still
the basis for portable circular saw designs
today.
Today the circular saw comes in many forms and
is an important design for sawmills, woodworking
shops and for home hobbyists. This versatile
design is continuing to find new uses. The circular
saw, mounted on a boom or on the front of a tractor-like
piece of machinery, has turned tree trimming
and log felling into a much safe and much more
labor efficient operation. It is clear that one
of the most popular of all cutting devices is
the circular saw.
|
