Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, which turned timber to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted the circular movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.