Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern World
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which converted logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion while advancing on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
