Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending stroke while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
