Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern Globe
There are many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, that turned timber to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed the circular movement into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending motion and moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.
