Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical saw, that converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted its circular movement to vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion while moving with each return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
