Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated cutter, which converted logs into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them so they acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing with each upward motion. It was a remarkably clever application of fundamental components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
