Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged the Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending stroke while moving with each return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
