A circular saw is a tool which no workman who has once seen it at work would care to be without, for it is a labour-saving tool of the first importance, and enables its owner to do many things with an amount of ease, exactness, precision, and rapidity that cannot be attained with saws actuated by the hand and arm. When an amateur becomes the possessor of a lathe, one of the first things he will do is to have it fitted with a circular saw and the necessary appliances in the shape of table, fence, etc., to enable him to use it
conveniently and with due effect. The professional workman, on the other hand, although he will not be without a circular saw to be worked on and by his lathe, wants something stronger and heavier that will save him the labour of using the rip saw, which has made many a man’s arm and shoulder ache when the absence of suitable machinery in the workshop has compelled him to keep at this kind of work for many successive hours, perhaps, if not through the entire day; and every man who seeks to save time and labour, and therefore money, either for himself or for those in his employ, will, or ought to, take care to have a thoroughly efficient machine well suited to the requirements of his business in his workshop.

From: “Our Guide to Good Things,” in Work– March 30, 1889