Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs into boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion to up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and advancing on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular motion into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
