Can You Crack This? That Forgotten Dutch Invention That Forged our Contemporary World
One can find many contenders for the title of “planet’s greatest invention.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
As per a new book, however, that honor should go to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Before automated cutting, constructing a modest merchant vessel necessitated around ten lumberjacks laboring over three months,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same quantity of processed timber could be produced in less than a week.”
Owing to their rapid mechanical cutter, that turned timber to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build ships more quickly than any other nation, which sparked a century of Dutch naval, financial and cultural supremacy in the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Machine
The inventor's lumber mill, contends the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. A single part converted the rotary motion into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s motion advancing the log toward the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead a measured step each cycle.
“Every component seemed modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance lay in how to integrate these parts so the machine acted in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every downward stroke while moving on every upward motion. It was an astonishingly clever use of fundamental components.”
Which leads us to today’s puzzle. I’d like for you to reimagine a key the fundamental ideas behind this historic machine.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts circular movement into vertical action. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a tube or sleeve into which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Consider that it is possible to mount components on a base, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, please suggest (non obvious) candidates for the planet’s greatest creation.
