Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, which turned logs to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted the circular movement into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke while moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
