Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged the Modern World
There are numerous candidates for the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple merchant vessel required around 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber to planks with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward motion and moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular motion to vertical action. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
