Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid automated saw, that turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the circular motion to vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward motion while moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful creation.
