Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted timber into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the circular motion into vertical action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and moving on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
