Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical cutter, that turned logs into planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted the rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke while moving on every return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
