Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned timber into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first true factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward motion while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
Which leads us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts circular motion to vertical action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.
