Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber into planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted its circular movement into vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them so the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending motion while moving with each upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
