Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
