Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped our Modern Globe
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary movement to up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
