Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned timber to boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary motion to vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every descending motion and moving with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
