Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, that converted logs to planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward motion while advancing on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.