Are You Able to Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous candidates to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship necessitated approximately ten sawyers laboring over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-driven lumber mills, an identical quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, which converted timber to boards with almost no manual labor, Dutch builders were able to construct vessels faster compared to anyone else, an advantage that sparked one hundred years of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “mankind’s initial authentic factory apparatus.” A windmill turned a wheel. A single part transformed the circular motion to vertical motion for the saw. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the log forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to integrate these parts so they acted within a perfectly controlled order, cutting on every downward stroke while moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
A fact that brings us to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary motion into vertical motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which a single the bars will fit perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a base, so the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) contenders as the planet’s greatest creation.
