Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which turned timber into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the rotary movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.
