Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical cutter, that converted timber into boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward motion while moving on every upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
