Joseph Buford Cox (1905 – August 10, 2002), was an American inventor and businessman. He invented what is now known as the chipper type chain for

chain saw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as tree fell ...

s. He based his design on the C-shaped

jaw The jaws are a pair of opposable articulated structures at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth ...

s of the

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

of the

timberman beetle The timberman beetle (''Acanthocinus aedilis'') is a species of woodboring beetle belonging to the longhorn beetle family. It is found in woodlands, with a large distribution through Europe, Russia and Central Asia. It is also known as the Sibe ...

. Cox watched the destructive larvae of the timber beetle (Ergates spiculatus) for many hours. The beetle's cutting action was left and right, side to side, rather than scratching or burrowing straight ahead. Cox adapted this concept to a new chain saw of his own design put into production during the late 1940s. Joseph and his wife, Alice, founded "The Oregon Saw Chain Co." in 1947. Cox later started a small casting company called OMARK, now known as "Omark Industries". In time, Oregon Saw Chain became a subsidiary of Omark Industries which was in turn acquired in 1985 by Blount, Inc., of

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

. Blount

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

in 1999 with Lehman Brothers Merchant Banking Partners and became known as Blount International, Inc. Today the company is known as Oregon Tool, Inc. Most chainsaws, with the exception of some Stihl saws, use an Oregon chain based on the invention of Joseph Buford Cox.OREGON History
/ref> Joseph Buford Cox only reached the fifth grade in his formal education. They had no children. Alice Erikson Cox left her fortune to be used by the Willmar Community Area Foundation on behalf of the people of Kandyohi County and Lake Lillian in central Minnesota.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Joseph Buford 1905 births 2002 deaths Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American businesspeople