Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous candidates to claim the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest merchant vessel required around 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same amount of processed timber could be produced in less than seven days.”
Owing to their rapid automated cutter, that converted timber to boards using virtually no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct ships faster compared to anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, was “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A windmill turned a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into vertical action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component was modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s genius lay in how to integrate them in order that the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, cutting with each downward stroke while moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
Which leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas behind Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular motion to vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which one of the bars will fit perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a base, so the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time with the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest creation.