Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs into boards with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted the circular movement into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and moving with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
