Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the circular motion to vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
