Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, that turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular motion into vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending motion while advancing with each return stroke. It was a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
