Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention That Forged our Modern World
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that honor should go to a mechanised timber mill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy mechanical saw, which converted timber to boards with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic and cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial machine.” A windmill rotated a wheel. One component transformed its circular motion into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed the rotary motion into a lateral motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system moved the log forward a measured step per cycle.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts in order that they acted in a precisely synchronized order, cutting with each descending motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a mechanism that turns rotary movement to vertical motion. You have these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the parts do not collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful creation.
