When you think of power tools, what comes to mind? Big, strong lumberjacks? It might surprise you to know that one of the main tools used by these lumberjacks was invented by a quiet Shaker woman named Tabitha Babbitt.

Sarah “Tabitha” Babbitt was born in Massachusetts in 1779. By 1793 her family was living in the Harvard Shaker Village and she was working as a weaver. While working on her loom each day, Tabitha watched her brothers and other men out in the forest cutting down trees. She saw them labor with the only tool available to them at the time, which was a two-handled saw. The men would stand on opposite ends of the saw with the tree in between them, pulling the blade back and forth. Unfortunately, the saw only cut on the forward pull. When it was pulled back it didn’t do any cutting. It was laborious and back-breaking work.

Tabitha saw how hard they worked and felt that there must be an easier way to cut the logs. While working at her loom one day, she got the idea that if she could create a saw that went around in a circle like her loom, it would  not only speed up the cutting process but ease the labor on the men.

She created a prototype by attaching a circular blade to her spinning wheel, which she operated by the foot pedal. She demonstrated how much more effective a saw of this type would be to the workers and manufacturers, and once they saw how time and cost effective her circular saw was, the local sawmill built a larger working model.

 Soon other sawmills followed suit and the circular saw became the tool of choice.

Tabitha also invented the spinning wheel head and a process for manufacturing cut nails.

Being a Shaker, Tabitha did not believe in making money off of her inventions so she never patented any of her ideas.

Though she did not file the patents or make any money, she is still credited with inventing the circular saw.

So, the next time you’re powering up your saw or watching carpenters build a house, remember to thank a woman…thank Tabitha Babbitt.