Can You Crack It? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern World
There are many contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber into planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the rotary movement to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward motion and advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
