Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, that converted logs into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending stroke while advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
Which brings us to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical action. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
