Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that turned timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending stroke while advancing with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
