Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted logs to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement to up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
