Are You Able to Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find many contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted logs into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
