Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Contemporary World
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, which converted logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed the circular motion to vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
