Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its circular motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
