Are You Able to Solve This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural supremacy across Europe and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part converted the circular motion to up-and-down action for the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary movement to vertical action. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.
