Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary movement into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward motion while moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.
