Can You Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Invention Which Forged our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that title should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship required around ten lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated cutter, which turned timber into planks using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to build vessels faster than any other nation, which unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the circular motion to vertical motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate them so they acted within a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each descending stroke and advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns circular movement to vertical motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
The solution returns later today UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, NO SPOILERS. Rather, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.
