Are You Able to Solve This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Shaped the Contemporary World
There are many candidates for the title of “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to the mechanised sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a modest trading ship required around 10 lumberjacks laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered lumber mills, an identical amount of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Thanks to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to boards using almost no manual labor, the Dutch could construct vessels more quickly than any other nation, which unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic dominance across Europe and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary movement to vertical motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step per stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate these parts so they acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent use of fundamental parts.”
A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. I’d like you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Design a machine which converts rotary movement to up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A spinning wheel. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) candidates as the planet’s most impactful creation.
