Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs to planks using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing on every upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
