Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Contemporary World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, that converted timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
