Can You Solve This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every downward motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
