Are You Able to Solve This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, which turned timber to boards using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could build vessels faster than any other nation, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic dominance across the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component converted the circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending stroke while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of basic components.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
