Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary World
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which turned logs to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component converted the circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. Another component transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every downward motion while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
Which brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning this historic invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary movement to vertical motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
