Can You Crack This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that converted timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement into vertical action for the saw. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine them in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke while advancing with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular movement to up-and-down motion. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
