Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which turned logs to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary movement into up-and-down action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
