Are You Able to Solve This? The Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Forged our Modern World
One can find many contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a modest merchant vessel required around ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” writes the author. “Using wind-driven sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy mechanical saw, that turned logs into boards using almost no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch naval, financial as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component changed that same rotary movement into a lateral motion feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the log ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine acted in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic parts.”
Which leads us to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns rotary motion to up-and-down action. You have these components exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
