Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, which converted logs into boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular movement to vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest invention.
