Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped the Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that honor should go to a automated sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be manufactured in less than a week.”
Thanks to their rapid automated saw, which converted timber to planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy in Europe and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its circular motion into vertical action for the saw. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a sideway’s movement advancing the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component was modest on its own. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each descending motion while moving on every upward stroke. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental components.”
A fact that brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent one of the basic ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a mechanism that turns circular movement into up-and-down motion. Your available these items only: A spinning wheel. Two pegs. Two rods. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK time with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, please suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest creation.
