Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its circular motion into vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
