Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, that turned timber into boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
