Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which turned logs into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same rotary movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion and advancing on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
