Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged the Modern World
There are many contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that converted logs to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its circular motion into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
