Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring for three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, that converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular movement to vertical motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per stroke.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each downward stroke while moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
