Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a automated sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component transformed its circular movement to up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic parts.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.
