Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs to boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
