Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion and moving with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.
