Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged our Contemporary World
One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned timber to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.
