Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
