Can You Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern World
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor belongs to a automated timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised cutting, building a modest merchant vessel required approximately ten sawyers laboring over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical saw, which turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance across Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts in order that they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while advancing with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion into vertical action. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest creation.
