Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the rotary motion to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward motion while advancing on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
