Are You Able to Solve It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their speedy mechanical cutter, which turned logs into boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic dominance across Europe and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part transformed its rotary movement into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine that turns circular motion into vertical motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a tube or housing into which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.
