Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged the Modern World
There are many candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that converted logs into planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine these parts so they operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion and moving with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
