Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped the Modern World
There are many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, though, that title should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which converted timber to planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands naval, economic and cultural dominance across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. A single part converted the circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each cycle.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so they operated within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every descending motion and advancing on every upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion to vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful creation.
