Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
