Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that converted timber to planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular movement to up-and-down action for the saw. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
