Are You Able to Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, which converted timber into boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to combine them so they operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward stroke while moving on every upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent a key the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical action. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s greatest creation.
