Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs to planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion to vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement to up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
