Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber into planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular motion to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
