Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern World
One can find many contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted timber to boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted the rotary movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
