Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into up-and-down action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion while moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
