Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted logs to boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward stroke and advancing on every return stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to up-and-down action. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
