Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged the Contemporary World
One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that turned logs into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
