Are You Able to Crack It? That Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Shaped our Contemporary Globe
One can find many contenders for the designation as “world’s most significant invention.” The circular axle. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship necessitated approximately 10 lumberjacks working for 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, which turned timber to boards with almost no manual labor, the Dutch were able to build vessels faster than anyone else, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, economic and artistic dominance in the continent and the globe.
The Original True Industrial Machine
Corneliszoon’s lumber mill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A windmill turned a gear. A single part transformed the circular motion to up-and-down action to power the cutting blade. Another component changed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A ratchet system shifted the wood forward a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest by itself. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to combine these parts in order that they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending stroke and advancing with each return stroke. It was an astonishingly clever use of basic parts.”
Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine a key the basic concepts behind this historic invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine that turns rotary motion into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which a single the rods can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the components don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates as the world’s most impactful invention.
