Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern World
There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which turned timber to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward stroke while advancing with each return motion. It was an astonishingly clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular movement to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful invention.
