Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required around ten sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this rapid automated cutter, that turned logs to planks using virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary movement into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they acted within a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts rotary movement into vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
