Can You Solve It? The Overlooked Dutch Invention Which Forged the Modern World
One can find many candidates for the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The circular axle. The printing press. The combustion motor.
According to a recent publication, though, that title belongs to a mechanised timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to automated cutting, building a simple trading ship required around ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes Jaime Dávila. “Using wind-powered sawmills, the same amount of cut lumber could be produced within a week.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, the Dutch could construct ships faster than anyone else, which unleashed one hundred years of Dutch maritime, economic as well as cultural dominance in the continent and the world.
The First Genuine Industrial Machine
The inventor's sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first authentic factory machine.” A wind turbine turned a wheel. A single part converted its circular movement to up-and-down motion to power the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning movement into a lateral movement feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the wood ahead one precise increment per cycle.
“Every component seemed simple on its own. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them in order that the machine operated within a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each descending motion while moving with each upward motion. This constituted a remarkably intelligent use of basic components.”
A fact that brings us up to today’s puzzle. I’d like you to reinvent a key the basic ideas behind Corneliszoon’s invention.
Circular to Vertical
Construct a machine which converts rotary motion to up-and-down motion. You have these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a cylinder or housing through which a single the bars will fit snugly. (Assume you can mount components on a stand, so that the parts don’t fall down.)
I’ll be back later today UK time featuring the solution.
Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s most impactful invention.
