Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, which converted logs into boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion and advancing on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
