Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, which converted timber into boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.
