Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the circular movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular motion into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
