Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Modern World
One can find many contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs into boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
