Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted its circular movement into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion and moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.
