Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern World
There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical motion for the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them so they operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion and moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
