Are You Able to Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular movement into up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward motion and moving on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
