Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation That Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks working over 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted logs into boards with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted the rotary movement into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and moving on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
