Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Dutch Creation Which Shaped our Contemporary World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid automated cutter, which turned logs into boards using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the world.
The First True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “humanity’s initial true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted the circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
