Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that converted logs to boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular motion into vertical motion for the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward stroke and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
