Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
