Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern Globe
There are many candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill invented by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component converted the circular motion to vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke while moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
Which brings us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s most impactful invention.
