Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern Globe
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, that turned logs into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part converted its rotary movement to vertical action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever application of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism which converts circular movement to vertical motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
