Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, that turned timber to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary motion into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
