Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped the Modern World
There are many candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that converted timber into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion and moving with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.
