Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern World
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, that converted logs into boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion while moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.