Are You Able to Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Modern World
There are many contenders to claim the designation as “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which converted timber to planks with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct ships faster than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural dominance across the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a wheel. One component converted its circular movement into vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion and moving on every return motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s challenge. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
