Are You Able to Solve It? That Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Modern Globe
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated sawing, constructing a simple merchant vessel required approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which turned timber to planks with virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed the rotary movement into vertical action to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement advancing the log to the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to combine them in order that the machine acted within a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each descending stroke while advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is for you to reimagine a key the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
