Can You Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to the mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated saw, that converted logs to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary movement into up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component transformed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion feeding 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 genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every descending motion while moving with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
