Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which turned logs to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
