Sketch of First Circular Saw Provided by Herstory Network
One such convert was Tabitha Babbitt was born December 10, 1779 in Hardwick, Massachusetts and settled in the Harvard Shaker community after her conversion to Shaker religion (Miller, 2010). Her duty in the community was to work as a weaver. The Shakers spirit of open mindedness, mutual respect, hard work, ingenuity, and working together allowed a woman like Tabitha to shine (Edmonds, 2011). She was credited with the invention of the circular saw about 46 years after her death and with no heir or journal there are little to no record of her life or family.
During an everyday weaving work, Tabitha came up with a great idea. The story was told “in the Manifesto of February 1899. “One day while watching the men sawing wood, she noted that one half the motion was lost and she conceived the idea of the circular saw. She made a tin disk, and notching it around the edge, slipped it on a piece of a shingle and found that her idea was a practical one, and from the crude beginning came the circular saw of to-day. Sister Tabitha’s first saw was made in sections and fastened to a board. A Lebanon Shaker later conceived the idea of making the saw out of a single piece of metal”” (Miller, 2010). Tabitha’s first saw can be seen today at the Albany, New York museum (Herstory).
The lack of a recorded patient has put some debate over who really invented the circular saw first. The first official patient for a circular saw was credited to Samuel Miller in 1777 in Britain. The next inventor was Gervinus of Germany, who had a saw of similar design of Babbitt’s design in 1780 (York Saw & Knife, 2009). The credit for the first circular saw in America was Sister Tabitha Babbitt in 1810 was the first to be used in industrial applications. The idea was shared with the world in 1813 without any attachment to Sister Tabitha. Just 3 years later a French inventors, August Brunet and J.B Cochot, filed with the U.S. Patent Office in 1816 for the invention (Beckswoort, 2000). To the world close to the Shaker community, Benjamin Bruce then Amos Bishop were rumored to have invented the circular saw (Miller, 2010). The Manifesto of 1899 set the record books straight forever by stating the exact methodology created by Tabitha to create the circular saw and dates of invention (Miller, 2010). Even though the Shaker community did not last as long as the circular saw, the records left behind made the ingenuity of Tabitha to be seen by generations to come. History has given Tabitha Babbitt the credit for being the first to invent the circular saw.
The great invention of circular saw was just the start for Tabitha Babbitt. She continued to invent as time and inspiration would move her to create. The other creations which she has been accredited for are “a new method of making false teeth” (Sears, 1910). By the end of Sister Tabitha Baggitt life around 1853, she was credited to the “invention false teeth and had already made a set in wax” (Sears, 1910). She will also be remembered for her idea to cut single nails from sheets of metal instead of forging each nail individually also “a contribution to mass production” (Stanley, 1995). There are little wonder why Shakers are still known for their simplistic and easy furniture because Tabitha allowed ease in cutting wood for this furniture and the cheap easy nails to put them together with (NPR). These two inventions had little documentation due to Shaker culture which has makes actual proof of Tabitha creating these things before anyone else hard to officially validate (Stanley, 1995). The Shaker religion would not allow for Tabitha to mate in order to have children. Her legacy did not die with her because newspaper’s still spread her story by saying “it is interesting to know that Tabitha Babbitt, a Harvard Shaker, gave the idea of the cut nail and the buzz saw to the world” (Wilder, 1917).
