Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped our Modern Globe
There are many candidates to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned logs into planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
