Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid mechanical cutter, that converted timber to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its circular movement into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending motion and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
