Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated cutter, which converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.
