Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required around ten sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted logs to planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
