Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, that converted logs to boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the rotary motion to vertical action for the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion while advancing on every return motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
