George Tiemann's 1880's Catalog: Amputation Saws

 Drawings showing the styles of amputation saws listed both during the Civil War and after

In the 1830-50 period, amputation saws were much larger as were the amputation knives and handles.  ‘Beefy’ is the word you hear about the sizes of the blades and especially the handles of the knives.  For some unknown reason about 1859-60, the handles and blades were made much smaller by Tiemann & Co. to the point of being dainty, as is the ‘Parker’ ‘D’ handled amputation saw.   Surgical sets from Tiemann 1859-60 are almost delicate, compared to earlier and later instruments.  It was a ‘phase’ due to someone requesting a smaller blade or a smaller handle on the saw. 

See a comparison between two Tiemann 1855 to 1861 surgical sets

See a comparison of various surgical sets and their saws in this collection

Union Medical Department surgeon Richard Satterlee was in charge of the design of the Medical and Hospital Department surgical sets during the Civil War.  Judging by the varied specifications, the first year, 1861, was a free for all for the instrument makers other than those who had supplied  sets to the Medical Department before the war.  As the Civil War progressed, the size and heaviness of the handles and blades increased dramatically under Satterlee’s direction and the Hospital Department purchases.  (If you were to go through the collections on this web site, you would easily see this by comparison.)  Most likely this size increase was due to the size of the men in the Army who specified the surgical sets at the time and the need for heavy use.  Purchases were made via the medical purveyors who sent the specifications to the instrument makers via the New York and Philadelphia military medical purveyor offices. 

There is a whole section on the website about the medical purveyors and what they did. 

The capital amputation saws made during the war are ‘manly’ and big as are the amputation knives and handles during the war.   Maybe Satterlee had big hands, who knows.  Someone was ordering  small saws immediately before the war, so they had to fit their hands.  Big hands, big saws, little hands, little saws.  (It is said the famous English surgeon, Liston, had huge hands, thus his huge amputation knives.) 

Bottom-line: no one knows if Satterlee was the one who 'approved the small Parker style saw.  If he did, it was in use just before and during the early part of 1861, but the smaller size went out of favor until the 1880’s when small delicate sterilizable amputation saws were again in vogue through the turn of the next century. 

Ref. Edmonson’s book on American Surgical Instrument makers prior to 1900 has lots of information on this topic of variations in all kinds of instruments and the purchases during the Civil War.

Click to enlarge image