Can You Crack It? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Shaped the Modern World
One can find many contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The steam engine.
According to a recent publication, though, that honor belongs to the mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a modest trading ship required around 10 sawyers working for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber might be manufactured within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned logs to planks using virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct vessels faster than any other nation, which sparked one hundred years of Dutch maritime, financial as well as artistic supremacy in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Manufacturing Device
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, represented “humanity’s initial true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine turned a gear. One component transformed its rotary movement to up-and-down motion to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism changed that same rotary motion into a lateral movement advancing the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward a measured step each cycle.
“Each element seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine acted within a perfectly controlled order, sawing with each downward motion while advancing on every return motion. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.”
Which leads us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Round and Up
Construct a machine which converts circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or sleeve into which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that you can mount components on a stand, so that the components don’t collapse.)
The solution returns later today UK featuring the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to propose (non obvious) contenders for the world’s greatest invention.
