Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
