Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation That Forged our Modern Globe

There are many candidates for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.

As per a recent publication, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutch inventor Corneliszoon van Uitgeest during 1593.

“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”

Owing to this speedy automated saw, that turned logs into planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to construct ships faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.

The Original True Industrial Device

Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed the rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke.

“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion and advancing on every upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”

Which leads us up to the current puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.

Round and Up

Construct a machine that turns circular motion into vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing into which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts don’t collapse.)

I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.

In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.