Are You Able to Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Modern Globe
One can find many contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to a mechanised timber mill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy mechanical saw, which turned timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels more quickly compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
The inventor's lumber mill, argues Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. One component transformed the circular motion into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the wood forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Each element seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine them so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting on every downward motion and advancing with each upward stroke. It was an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular movement to vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the parts do not fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders as the planet’s most impactful creation.
