Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged the Contemporary Globe
There are many contenders for the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks working for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be produced in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned timber into boards using almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary movement into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing with each upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reimagine one of the basic ideas underpinning this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the world’s most impactful creation.
