Are You Able to Crack This? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Modern Globe
One can find many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring for three months,” writes the author. “With wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to this speedy automated cutter, that converted timber to planks using almost no human effort, the Dutch could build ships more quickly than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural dominance across Europe and the globe.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial authentic industrial machine.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion into vertical action to power the saw. Another component transformed the rotary movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per stroke.
“Each element seemed modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to combine them in order that the machine operated within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each descending motion while advancing on every upward stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us to the current puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a mechanism which converts circular motion to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s greatest creation.
