Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
