Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe
There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion and moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
