Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Modern World
There are numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted timber into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular motion to vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
