Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
There are many contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a simple merchant vessel necessitated around 10 lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within a week.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical cutter, that turned logs to boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in Europe and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed the rotary movement to vertical action for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning motion into a lateral motion advancing the timber toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each descending motion while advancing on every upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion into vertical action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so that the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.
