Can You Solve This? That Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary World
There are numerous candidates for the designation as “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that title should go to a automated timber mill invented by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated approximately 10 sawyers working over three months,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to their speedy automated cutter, which converted logs to boards with almost no human effort, the Dutch were able to build ships faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, economic and cultural dominance in Europe and the globe.
The First True Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's sawmill, contends Dávila, represented “humanity’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted its circular movement to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed the spinning motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the wood ahead a measured step per cycle.
“Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and moving with each return stroke. This constituted a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
Which leads us up to the current challenge. I’d like for you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical motion. Your available these components only: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so the components do not collapse.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the world’s most impactful creation.
