Tabitha Babbitt: The Circular Saw
Tabitha Babbitt was born into the famous Shaker community, a unique Christian sect that lived a utopian lifestyle and practiced pacifism. She worked as a weaver and often observed how people struggled to cut wood with a pit saw, requiring two men to operate and only allowing cutting in one direction.
Eager to solve the problem, Babbitt attached a circular blade to her spinning wheel and invented the much more efficient circular saw in 1812. Her invention helped cut wood faster with half the manpower. A larger version of her design was later installed in the sawmill.