Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, that converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
