Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion while moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
