People absolutely horrified after finding out why chainsaws were originally invented

People are feeling pretty queasy after learning why chainsaws were first invented, and now you're about to be too.

If you've ever wondered why those contraptions that cut down trees and butcher people in horror films were originally invented, then maybe you should consider minding your own business.

No? Okay fine. The first chainsaw was originally created to help women through childbirth.

In the late 18th century, two doctors built the contraption so they could remove parts of a woman's pelvic bone to widen the birth canal in a procedure called a symphysiotomy.

Are you happy now?

If you're starting to feel a little light-headed, it might help to know that these early chainsaws wouldn't have looked much like the ones we recognise today.

Back in the day they were much smaller - around the size of a kitchen knife - and were powered by a little hand crank.

That's definitely not as threatening, but still not terribly pleasant - though neither is childbirth.

Symphysiotomies don't exactly have the cleanest history, but thankfully it's now a very outdated procedure.

You can thank the caesarian section for that.

After learning about the stomach-churning history of the chainsaw, people on TikTok were horrified.

For a while it even became a trend, where people would film themselves before and after they had googled 'why chainsaws were invented'.

TikToker @bootstheorangecat was one person who tried out the challenge, and by the looks of things she was just as horrified as I was.

And her followers weren't too happy, either.

"No bc I thought it was for torture and it is WORSE," commented one viewer.

"I WANNA GO BACK TO 5min AGO WHEN I DIDNT KNOW," wrote a second.

And a third, soon to be disgusted viewer wrote a message for her future self before setting off to look it up, writing: "Dear future me, are you alr? are you happy you know this now?"

Meanwhile, another challenger dubbed the question and answer as one of the ‘things [they] didn’t need to know in life’. That's a hard agree on my part.

But now we all know that terrible, terrible fact. Thanks for learning this with me. I hope everyone has sweet dreams.

Topics: Weird, Health

Ali Condon

Ali is a journalist for LADbible Group, writing on all things film, music, and entertainment across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. You can contact Ali at [email protected].

@alicondon