Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned timber to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular movement into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion while advancing on every return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
