On Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:56:07 -0500, Don Stauffer
wrote:

I had been told when visiting an old lumber camp tourist attraction that
the circular saw was a mid-nineteenth century invention.

I have been trying to determine what an early Nineteenth Century steam
saw would look like. In doing a google search, I find a lot of
references to circular saws even in Seventeenth and Eighteenth century,
including ganged circular saws in Eighteenth Century.

Anyone know when the circular saw was invented, and did a reciprocating
power saw precede it? I realize the first power saws were water powered
rather than steam, so I guess power saws could go back quite aways.

I've always heard that the circular saw was a Shaker invention, though
that may be a case of local chauvinism -- the last active Shaker
community at Sabbathday Lake, Maine is close by.

These pages say that the first saws came much earlier, but that the
Shakers were the first to use circular saws in saw mills.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_saw
http://inventors.about.com/library/i...rs/bltools.htm

--
Ned Simmons