Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are many contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, which turned timber into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending stroke and moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns circular movement to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
