Can You Solve It? The Forgotten Dutch Creation Which Forged the Modern World
One can find numerous contenders for the title of “planet’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, though, that honor should go to the automated sawmill invented by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, building a simple trading ship required approximately ten sawyers working for 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within a week.”
Owing to their speedy automated saw, that turned logs to planks with almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch naval, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial true factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part transformed its rotary motion to up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral motion feeding the log toward the blade. A ratchet system shifted the log forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Every component was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized order, cutting on every descending stroke and advancing with each return motion. It was a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.”
A fact that leads us up to today’s challenge. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts underpinning this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to up-and-down action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two rods. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing through which one of the rods will fit perfectly. (Assume it is possible to put things on a stand, so that the components don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
