Can You Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention That Forged our Modern World
There are many candidates to claim the title of “world’s most significant innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a new book, however, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, building a simple trading ship necessitated around 10 sawyers working for three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-driven sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber might be manufactured in less than seven days.”
Owing to this speedy automated saw, that converted timber to planks with virtually no manual labor, the Dutch could build vessels faster than anyone else, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, economic and artistic supremacy across Europe and the globe.
The Original True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, contends Dávila, was “mankind’s initial authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. One component converted its circular motion into up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed the spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the log to the blade. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each stroke.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing with each downward motion and moving with each upward motion. This constituted an astonishingly clever application of fundamental parts.”
Which brings us up to today’s challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Design a mechanism which converts circular motion into vertical motion. You have these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “sleeve”, that is a tube or housing into which a single the rods can slide perfectly. (Assume you can put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
The solution returns at 5pm UK with the answer.
In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) contenders as the world’s greatest invention.
