Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern World
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted its circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement to up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest invention.