Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, that turned logs into boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
