Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted its rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending motion and advancing with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.
