Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Shaped the Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned timber to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the rotary movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. It was a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
