Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers working for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
