Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
