Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation That Forged our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its rotary movement into vertical motion to power the saw. Another component changed the spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every downward stroke and moving on every upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back later today UK with the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest invention.
