Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
There are numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary movement to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.
