Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs to planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance in the continent and the world.
The First True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. A single part transformed the circular movement into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending stroke and moving on every upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
