Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs into boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement into vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
