Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted logs to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the circular movement to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
