Can You Solve This? The Forgotten Netherlands Invention Which Forged the Contemporary Globe
One can find numerous contenders to claim the title of “world’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine.
As per a new book, though, that title belongs to a mechanised sawmill conceived through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593.
“Prior to mechanised cutting, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks laboring over 90 days,” notes the author. “Using wind-powered lumber mills, an identical quantity of processed timber might be manufactured within seven days.”
Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that converted logs to boards with virtually no human effort, the Dutch were able to construct ships more quickly compared to anyone else, which unleashed a century of Dutch maritime, financial as well as cultural supremacy across the continent and the globe.
The Original Genuine Manufacturing Device
Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues Dávila, represented “mankind’s first authentic industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component transformed its circular movement into up-and-down motion for the cutting blade. A separate mechanism transformed that same spinning motion into a lateral movement advancing the timber to the cutter. A geared mechanism moved the wood forward one precise increment each stroke.
“Each element was modest on its own. Corneliszoon’s genius was to combine these parts so the machine operated in a perfectly controlled order, cutting with each downward stroke and moving with each upward motion. It was an astonishingly intelligent application of basic parts.”
Which brings us up to the current challenge. The task is for you to reinvent a key the fundamental ideas underpinning Corneliszoon’s machine.
Circular to Vertical
Design a machine that turns circular motion to vertical action. Your available these items only: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, which is a cylinder or housing into which one of the bars can slide snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a stand, so that the parts don’t collapse.)
I’ll be back at 5pm UK time with the answer.
Meanwhile, NO SPOILERS. Instead, please propose (less celebrated) candidates for the world’s greatest invention.
