Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern World
One can find many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to the automated sawmill invented through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated around ten sawyers working over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical cutter, which converted timber into planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that unleashed one hundred years of Netherlands naval, financial as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the log to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke while advancing on every upward motion. It was a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine one of the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a base, so that the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s most impactful invention.
