Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary World
There are many contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, which turned logs to boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them so they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.