Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke and moving with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
