Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber to boards with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion to vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular movement into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
