Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, that converted timber into planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward stroke and moving with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
