Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated saw, that converted logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary movement into up-and-down motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending stroke while moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
