Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Creation That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced within seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted its rotary movement to vertical motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each downward stroke while moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
