Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs into planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular movement into up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending stroke and moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
