Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many candidates for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which turned timber to boards using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine them so they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion and moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful invention.
