Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a recent publication, however, that honor belongs to the automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks working for three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber might be produced within a week.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that turned timber into boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. A single part transformed its circular movement into up-and-down motion for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, sawing on every downward motion while moving with each upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into up-and-down action. Your available these components only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
