Are You Able to Crack It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that title belongs to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, which turned logs into planks using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, was “humanity’s first authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into up-and-down action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest creation.
