Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, that turned logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster compared to any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. One component converted its circular motion to vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them so they operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion and moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary movement into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s most impactful creation.
