Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship required approximately 10 sawyers working over 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to this rapid automated saw, which turned logs into boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial and cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s first true factory apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part transformed its circular motion into vertical motion to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion advancing the timber to the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood ahead a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed simple by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending motion and advancing on every return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
A fact that brings us to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods will fit perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a stand, so that the parts do not fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates for the planet’s greatest invention.
