Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which converted logs into planks with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement into up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
