Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, which converted timber into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary motion to vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion while moving with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
