Are You Able to Crack It? The Overlooked Netherlands Invention That Shaped our Contemporary Globe
There are numerous contenders to claim the designation as “world’s greatest invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, however, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a simple merchant vessel required around ten lumberjacks working over 90 days,” notes Jaime Dávila. “With wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to their rapid mechanical saw, that turned logs to planks using almost no human effort, Dutch builders could build vessels more quickly than any other nation, an advantage that unleashed a century of Netherlands maritime, financial and artistic supremacy across the continent and the world.
The First True Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, represented “mankind’s initial authentic industrial apparatus.” A windmill rotated a gear. One component converted the rotary motion into vertical action to power the saw. A separate mechanism changed that same spinning movement into a sideway’s movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment per stroke.
“Each element was simple on its own. Corneliszoon’s brilliance was to combine these parts so they operated in a perfectly controlled sequence, sawing on every descending stroke and moving with each return motion. This constituted an astonishingly intelligent application of fundamental parts.”
Which leads us up to today’s puzzle. The task is you to reimagine one of the fundamental concepts underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular movement to vertical action. You have these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two rods. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or sleeve through which a single the bars can slide snugly. (Assume it is possible to mount components on a stand, so the components do not fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK featuring the answer.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Instead, feel free to suggest (non obvious) contenders for the planet’s most impactful invention.
