Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted the circular motion to vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
