The late Fred Dibnah, they don't make them like this anymore:

 

I’ve spent many an hour on YouTube watching Fred Dibnah videos. He grew up in industrial England just as many steam operated factories were shutting down. Very interesting to watch. He also restored a Steam Tractor and drove it around to visit some of these old sites. Like the slate quarry in Wales. Lots of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

You've gotta be kidding me... Not once did I see a machining jig.

Skills are not confined to operating machines or using automation.

There are plenty examples of unskilled fools using machines.

 

Hey, the second guy missed it by this much.
I think in some of those cases they didn't care if it hit the house or outbuilding.

Clearly in some of the cases the people once saw a tree felled by a sawyer and so were, of course, experts.

Sawyer qualification test, question 102:

figure 102a​

In figure 102a, above, the undercut was made in this fashion because:

A. The tree is in Australia, so the earth must be felled rather than the tree.
B. The sawyer accidentally had the saw upside down when making the cut.
C. This is an Inverted Maple which requires special handling due to the roots being in the air and the branches underground.
D, The person pictured in the photo is not a sawyer, rather he is a guy-with-a-chainsaw.

 

Hey, the second guy missed it by this much.
I think in some of those cases they didn't care if it hit the house or outbuilding.

Clearly in some of the cases the people once saw a tree felled by a sawyer and so were, of course, experts.

Sawyer qualification test, question 102:

View attachment 276176
figure 102a​

In figure 102a, above, the undercut was made in this fashion because:

A. The tree is in Australia, so the earth must be felled rather than the tree.
B. The sawyer accidentally had the saw upside down when making the cut.
C. This is an Inverted Maple which requires special handling due to the roots being in the air and the branches underground.
D, The person pictured in the photo is not a sawyer, rather he is a guy-with-a-chainsaw.

It was a mixture of skills for sure.

In those cases they didn't care if it hit the house or outbuilding it would seem to me to be easier to demolish the house or outbuilding without a tree in the middle of it. We would just smash the old shed with a chain around a few structural supports and a truck/tractor to pull them out. Looks to me they dropped the trees on buildings for fun.