Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary World
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, which converted logs to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch naval, financial and cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the circular motion to vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful invention.
