Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary World
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs into planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component transformed its circular motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion and advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.
