Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped our Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately ten sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical action to power the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
