Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every descending motion and moving with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
