Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged the Modern Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, which turned timber into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary motion to vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward stroke and moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
